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The McShay Show
Week 6 Reactions: Penn State's Problem, Miami's Dominance, Arch's Letdown | The McShay Show
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- [00:00]
Todd McShay
Listen, we got a lot to get to. It was a wild day.
- [00:03]
Steve
It was a wild day afternoon.
- [00:05]
Todd McShay
The 330 frame, the three 30s were supposed to be an appetizer to the main treat to the like the. The. The main course. The main course turned out to be a little bit of a dud, let's be honest. So what I do know is. Men. This episode is presented by Duluth Trading Co. Ready to give rival tailgates the foam finger. Duluth Trade & Co. Crafts hall of fame game day gear to help you grill hotter, cheer louder and tailgate longer. Bibs loaded with pockets, gusseted pants so you can crouch without snuffing out your coals. And free swinging shirts tailor made for cornhole tossing. Stay comfortable from preseason to playoffs in the toughest tailgate attire around. Only at Duluth Trading Company there's just 203 days till the NFL draft, so no time like the present. 201 days. I got it wrong. Who cares? It's a lot when we get to that one. One starts when it's 100 and something. That's when I get scared. Men, you still good at 201 days?
- [01:10]
Steve
I'm good, man. I'm good.
- [01:11]
Todd McShay
All right. Men is good. I'm good. Let's roll that damn thing. Tucker. Evan Holly gets the show. He beat me to to it. He said, tucker, run it. He knows. All right, we're doing it. By the way, anyone who's not a subscriber to the McShay Report, Google it. It's the McShay Report. Subscribe, please. We appreciate I personally, that's like my, my passion project, my baby. We've got some exciting news we're going to announce in the next couple weeks about what we're doing here. All right. This episode is brought to you by Vuori. As an analyst, I'm a rankings guy. I scope the landscape, look at all the prospects and then make the call. And looking at the Vuori Sunday performance jogger, it's safe to say I found your new favorite jogger. Soft, lightweight, four way performance stretch. The Sunday performance jogger moves with you. No restrictions. And get this, we just landed a deal for friends of our show. They're offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on The Planet at viori.com/mcshay. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. My main man mention. I are getting things buttoned up the way I want to. So we're going to share some exciting news in the next Couple of weeks. But for right now, this is my little baby project. I adore it. My main man Dan has helped me and Connor as well along the way and every step of the way. And so we're starting the first of Sunday mornings, your inbox. Get up in the morning. Whether you're dealing with the hangover, whether you're excited for life, whether you're getting ready to go to church, whether you're getting ready to go hike and. And whatever it is you do on a Sunday morning, we're gonna have kind of a recap with some prospects rising, some different things, kind of the top takeaways. So that'll be in your inbox. And then we'll have our weekly newsletter come out in the middle of the week with something. Usually we've been doing, like, a deep dive into something. Last week, it was Reuben Bain Jr. And Carson Beck. I just. I typically, on that one, like to take the time to dive deep into tape and kind of fill you in on where we are in our process. So that's the little plug there. The McShay report. Google it and subscribe if you can, please. This chat keeps getting bigger every week, and we appreciate everyone that's here, from Evan Holly to. Where's our main man tonight? Where's. Where's. Where's our angry guy?
- [03:54]
Steve
We have Haas. Brian Hoss, right? Is that his name? Yeah.
- [03:56]
Todd McShay
Yeah. I'm looking for host to see it was Haas. Not here.
- [03:59]
Steve
You might be here.
- [04:00]
Todd McShay
Hey, somebody call Haas. Somebody check on him. Check on a welfare check. All right. We had a big day today, but I've decided, like, my favorite thing to do and my favorite show is the Saturday night show when we do the best things that we saw today. And we've got some cool stuff today. And it's become kind of like this fun thing on our group chat all throughout the day, and people are sending in everyone that. On our. Our staff, that part of this family here, we send in stuff that we. You know, you got to basically make the. Make the cut to get it in because we get so many good things every day. Social media or stuff we're seeing on tv. So, Tucker, I assume you're. We're good to start on this stuff. And I think I can. You and I can actually watch it. And if there's audio, we can actually hear it this time because we're advancing.
- [04:48]
Steve
Yeah.
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Todd McShay
Essentially, we're going to become like a network television show. It's just going to be our little show.
- [04:53]
Steve
Tucker's advancing. I don't know if we are.
- [04:55]
Todd McShay
But Tucker's advancing and his fiance Peyton, by the way, is a tutorial. Was a tutor at UCLA for all those athletes. And I've got a little story about her. Oh, no way. The ucla, she's got some new Heisel, you know, a little new Heisel nugget for us. But as I'm being informed that she was a tutor for some of the athletes at ucla, I was thinking to myself, man, she is downgraded to. She's tutoring Tucker in all sorts of way.
- [05:26]
Steve
I don't. I don't feel that way.
- [05:28]
Todd McShay
In all sorts of ways. I'm sure that man needs some tutoring. All right, let's. Let's start out the best thing we saw all day. We've got a few of them here today. Let's start off with Cincinnati running back Taweed Walker. Look, I was watching this live, men, because I wanted to see. Come on, man. He's 5, 8, 2, 20.
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Steve
Is that not targeting on the offense, though?
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Todd McShay
Get the. Get out of here. Targeting in the. Oh. Oh, that's the best of the best, by the way.
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Steve
14 for Iowa State. Had a monster game and it.
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Todd McShay
Yeah, but not there.
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Steve
No, not there. That was. That was not there.
- [06:17]
Todd McShay
And I won't mention his name because it's not fair to him and his family. And speaking of family, my brother in law, Jeff Lewis. It was a big day for the Lewis McShay family. Oh, look there.
- [06:29]
Steve
Look at that.
- [06:30]
Todd McShay
That's a. That's a text I got from Jeff.
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Steve
They made it.
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Todd McShay
My wonderful. My wonderful sister, Megan McShay. Now, Megan Lewis. And. And he. He's just. He's a. He's a fan. Fan of the show. A friend of the show, I should say.
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Steve
He's not a fan.
- [06:45]
Todd McShay
He's a friend. He's certainly not a fan of mine sometimes, but I get this text. He's on the field with his daughter, who's my. My niece. Ella and Addie are my wonderful, beautiful nieces out in Cincinnati, where my family moved while we were in college at Richmond. They're outside Mason, Ohio, and now they've moved all different parts of the area. But he's on the field with. With Addie, right? And he's. Get this clip. And the thing he texts me is mensch. And you want to know why, folks? Because this was mentioned FanDuel Pick of the week. So that's one of the best things I saw all week, was Jeff Lewis with my niece on the. On the field at Cincinnati at Nippert Stadium. We'll get back to Nippert Stadium and some of the history later. But a really cool win for Cincinnati in that program. And I also want to talk that they've got some Cincinnati back. They got some dudes on that team. No, they are some NFL scouts. There are some guys who are going.
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Steve
There are some guys. I just know you don't like the back thing, so I wanted to get on your case about it.
- [07:46]
Todd McShay
No, I know. I understand that. All right, next up. This one was interesting and it was hysterical at the time, but it's one of those freezing cold takes, if you will. Our main man, Pavia did something pregame. I mean, it's hysterical.
- [08:07]
Steve
If you win, it's great. If you win, it kind of looks like Russell Wilson running the simulated games with no one else around him. When that happens, though, and we got.
- [08:18]
Todd McShay
To realize too, there are some people who are just driving in their car or taking a walk or a jog who are just listening to this on. And we appreciate everyone who's watching truly and listening on YouTube. You're watching live right now with all they found. There he is.
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Steve
Right away with the fire. James Franklin, by the way.
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Todd McShay
That's. But for those. Right. For those of you. And I just. It just dawned on me because I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff and I. I shouldn't be hosting, but it's just kind of how we're doing it and it's going okay so far. The jackhammer that we talked about was Tyree Walker, just absolutely running over a defender in the Iowa State game.
- [08:59]
Steve
Right?
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Todd McShay
And then this, the. What we showed next was Pavia, the quarterback for Vanderbilt pre game. No one's on the field. They're warming up. Everyone's running routes, warming their arm ups. He's taking a snap from his center and practicing victory formation. The victory formation. Kneel down. And then when he's done with that, if he's practicing throwing the ball up in the air to celebrate. That takes some. But listen, in Tuscaloosa, in Tuscaloosa, College, life is full of regrets. That's one of them.
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Steve
Very true.
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Todd McShay
Okay, next up. This guy's just a player who's. Who's been rising from week one of the season.
- [09:44]
Steve
He used. You've been on him early.
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Todd McShay
I've been on. I've been on Michael Trigg, the tight end for Baylor since. Since the beginning of the season. Watch a couple of these catches he made today. This is a tight game against Kansas State. This is a Baylor team. Wow. That. That Lost to a damn good Auburn team. And Sawyer Robertson, my guy had over 400 yards passing. Is a Baylor team. That second loss and only conference loss came to Arizona State only by three points. They're battling a Kansas State team that's like things are falling apart, but they're trying to, you know, rectify their season. And Michael Trigg is making two catches that are highlight reels, man. He is an athletic dude.
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Steve
Really. How big do you think those hands are? You see how he puts that in his left hand? Every coach in America is like, don't do that. But look at, look at that left hand with the ball.
- [10:39]
Todd McShay
That's ten. That's. That's ten and three quarters inches. Ten and three quarters. Ten, ten and 18 inch. I just got a close up of it. All right, moving on. But Michael Trigg is a player in this tight end class. You know, we talk about Sadiq at Oregon is tight end one. He's rising. Remember, he was. There's some good ones and. No, I know, I know. And he's one of the guys that is kind of bolstering that tight end group. He caught passes for Jackson Dart.
- [11:08]
Steve
Crazy back, right?
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Todd McShay
Jackson Dart with his first start and win for the New York Giants.
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Steve
I was wondering how long that was gonna take you to work.
- [11:18]
Todd McShay
That in all coming back, full circle, man. This next one was the funniest moment of the day when I, when I saw this. You sent this to us, right?
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Steve
Yeah. This is the right one. Yeah.
- [11:30]
Todd McShay
Clemson making friends. TCU was. I went to that game and that was. That was one of the saddest feelings.
- [11:39]
Steve
I've had in university so far.
- [11:41]
Todd McShay
And I've failed midterms before, so it's saying something. She's. That's a UNC student who was just randomly. Sometimes they send, they send producers out, like during the week. Typically, like the, the talent they call like the on air people will come in like Thursday night, they'll have a dinner and then meetings all day Friday. But a lot of times the, the production group will come in maybe Wednesday night if they're trying to do something specific or at least Thursday morning. And they'll walk around campus, they'll take shots. You know, I forget the name of them, but they're. They're shot, you know, B roll or. Yeah, it's B roll, right. But there's a specific name for like the, the ones around campus and all that. But. And then they'll do some interviews or whatever. There, there's always something they're trying to, to get to Scenics. Clear. Clear. You've seen. Yes, Scenes. Yeah, scenics. And so. And so they walk around and then they ask this poor girl, just a random student that. That probably asked 20.
- [12:43]
Steve
Poor girl. That girl's a coldblooded killer, man.
- [12:45]
Todd McShay
Coldblooded killer. And she just looks so innocent. And then she starts talking. And then the way she says university, almost like maybe like a European, like, you know what I mean? At un. At university, you only say that if you're from, like, you know, if you're not from the United States, usually from like, Europe somewhere. And then on top of it, like, being. It was. That's what it was. It was the juxtaposition of, like, I don't even know if she was born in this country, because the universe since being at university, that to me is like, oh, she's from Europe, right? She grew up in, like, London or something. But so mad about how disgusting that first game in the Bill Belichick era was and how disappointing that it was worse than. Than her failing her midterms. Run that back again, Tucker. Now that we Clemson making moves. TCU is. I went to that game and that was. That was one of the saddest feelings.
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Steve
I've had in university so far.
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Todd McShay
And I've failed midterms before, so that's saying something. You're right, man. She is a cold blooded killer. All right, last one.
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Steve
She knows that athletic report came out this week and everyone's piling on Bill. She's like, yeah, I'm getting in on this.
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Todd McShay
All right, last one. Jerry Newheisel. He looks like a surfer that they ripped off of Manhattan Beach. And honestly, first, just watching him on the sideline a couple clips, I didn't realize it was Rick's son. Rick's really. He looks. I mean, he looks exactly like him. No, I know, but it was like. It was like a side angle with the hair.
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Steve
It was like over the top.
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Todd McShay
And I just saw, like, his hair and I saw the head. I didn't see his face. It was like, over. And they were talking about. And he had the. He was calling plays in clearly. And I'm like, who is that? And then they came around and yes, I realized. But I'm saying, like, when you look at him, it's like he looks like he's 24 years old. Oh, they ripped him out of the surf. Surf shop. And meanwhile, he is absolutely shredding this really good Penn State defense with an offense that has been really bad.
- [14:52]
Steve
Right.
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Todd McShay
And I want you to watch this clip.
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Steve
And then a Splash and a ride for the play caller who I soon think will be considered the offensive coordinator. And his dad's reaction, you might ask.
- [15:09]
Todd McShay
Get him down, get him down.
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Steve
I mean, yeah, he broke down crying later on, like a little emotional at the end.
- [15:24]
Todd McShay
Yeah, I clicked over to see because I saw him start to talk about. I got to hear this.
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Steve
Yeah.
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Todd McShay
And he was like my voice cracking tears, like holding it back, talking about his wife at the. Oh, I've goosebumps, like chill bumps all over me right now. All right, awesome. Way to start. Let's get into it.
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Steve
Where you want to go? Where do you want to start?
- [15:46]
Todd McShay
Let's start. I mean let's.
- [15:49]
Steve
People are dying to hear your Penn State take one. I saw someone say McShay's Penn State take tonight is going to be generational. So no pressure, just go to it.
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Todd McShay
Let's just go to it and we'll come back to Miami, Florida State and we'll come back to the rest of the games. Why don't you take me through what you saw in this game on the field?
- [16:08]
Steve
Well, I'll tell you this, I was back and forth, back and forth and I didn't see much of the first half because I was watching other games and I texted my buddy. Chris Richter, who went to Penn State is the most level headed Penn State fan I know. He's just a reasonable human being about all of it. And he was losing his mind. He was just talking about how the defense couldn't stop anyone, that Allers feet are a mess. He was, I mean, he was upset. My understanding of what I saw over the course of the game was Penn State couldn't, couldn't stop Nico from running. I mean he had 16 carries for 128 yards and three touchdowns. The onside kick at the beginning of the game was a brilliant move to, you know, maybe this Penn State team's tired. Maybe they're coming off that loss last week, maybe they're not awake. You get yourself an extra possession. Usually pulled all the right strings. But I will say this, this is what I will say. Looking back on what I did see in the stats and all that Penn State didn't lose today because of Drew Aller. Penn State lost today because of their defense. And that's concerning this. This UCLA team couldn't score against anyone and they're putting a 42 on the Nittany Lions today. And you can say whatever about coming off last week. You can say whatever you want about travel. Guess what? Everyone else, else has to do the same Things, man, that is, that is bad to give up 42 points today.
- [17:30]
Todd McShay
It's beyond bad, Steve.
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Steve
Here's the generational take.
- [17:36]
Todd McShay
No, it's not like I did enough with Fine Bomb this week. I'm not here to like become that show. Okay. But I do want to say this is, I mean this is a, a defense that had given up 11, 06 and 30, but to arguably the best quarterback in the country. And, and that included overtime.
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Steve
Right?
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Todd McShay
Was. I think it was. No, that was double overtime.
- [18:03]
Steve
Yep.
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Todd McShay
What was it in regulation? Doesn't matter.
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Steve
Pulling up.
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Todd McShay
You get the point.
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Steve
Yep.
- [18:13]
Todd McShay
This is a, this is a defense historically that has been great and early in the season has been great. Okay. And it, it looked like a defense that had its like a players only meeting last night like the night before in LA at a gentleman's club, like Friday night, light style. Like something so wrong and something so off. That's like something happened. Right. And it's a lack of discipline. It's. It felt like they weren't. And here's the thing, like you talk about like well, they didn't play hard. They didn't do like they had a letdown game. It's. It's not. I think the misconception sometimes is that like they just kind of are half assing it on the field. You look slow when you don't prepare properly. And when you don't prepare properly, that's on you 18 to 22 year olds getting paid money now. Know your role. No, like you, you get what you are. You're a big time player at a big time program in a multi billion dollar business, Right?
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Steve
Correct.
- [19:21]
Todd McShay
And you're all trying to get to the NFL. And I promise you this, no one on that defense, all 11 of those starters and the backups coming in all, all have their eyes on playing in the National Football League. So they know one thing collectively this tape is out there. Doesn't matter who we're playing Villanova, doesn't matter if we're playing FIU or Nevada. Okay? So it's preparation. And so I'm not sitting here and saying like the, the Jim Dos who came in from Ohio State doesn't know how to coach. Look at the first four games like they put, they, they've done well. Oregon, Oregon had like four.
- [20:03]
Steve
It was 17 at the end, 17 points at the end of regulation.
- [20:05]
Todd McShay
They wound up with like 420. It was a 420. It was significantly more than Penn State had in total yards of offense. But they held him to 17 in regulation. Okay. And that's an offense that's. That rolls. They held him to three in the first half. Talents there, coaching's there. What's missing? Well, we know that the quarterback, it's not that he chokes. We, we've told you since May on the show, if you've been following the show, we've told you on the show what his weaknesses are and why they get exposed in big games. He doesn't show up like not prepared, he doesn't show up. And the big moments too big for him, the lights are too bright. That's not the deal, man. If you go back and watch, historically it's not the deal. But it took me a while and digging deep into tape to try to figure out he. There's two things that prevent him in big games because big games are against good defenses and good defenses have speed and they fly to the football and they swarm, right? And so when he's going up against the Ohio States, the Michigan's, the big time programs, there's two things that prevent him from playing great in those games. Because he's big, he's strong, he processes fast, he sees the whole field with that tall frame. He's got a big time arm. And it's weird because he's not twitchy and all this stuff, but he's instinctively competitively athletic. So why does he fail in the big games? We've told you he fails in the big games because that lack of twitch and suddenness as an athlete, it prevents him from getting away from those faster defensive linemen that are on him just like that. And the second part is he can't throw, touch, accuracy, anticipation, throws to receivers or running back swinging out of the backfield on simple routes when they're running away from him. He's horribly inaccurate on those type of throws down the field. Touch, dropping it in post corners, go routes, wheel routes and swing passes for some reason. And that's the reason receivers running away from him. So that's the offensive side. What happened today has not happened. It hasn't happened under James Franklin. It doesn't happen at Penn State where the defense doesn't show up against an inferior opponent. Now you say, well Nico, I am ala he was due for a big game. He's. He's Tennessee. He all the millions of dollars and. And he could be leading Tennessee and they could be undefeated and all those things, but he was struggling against everyone else. You don't have a breakout game against Penn State.
- [22:55]
Steve
No, he lost to New Mexico 35 to 10.
- [22:59]
Todd McShay
Thank you Steve, 35 to 10. So what is it? It's leadership. It's absolutely positive. Now, the big games, inability big games where you can't complete a pass to a wide receiver, that's quarterback. This is leadership. No one can tell me anything different. And you know, when I knew for a fact that it was leadership post game, I was listening so closely, I couldn't wait to hear. And I'd never watch a post game press conference from a coach. Like, if it's on. Yeah, it's just like, that's not my role in this whole thing. When I heard James Franklin come to the podium and said, there's a bunch of reasons why this happened and we're terribly disappointed. And he went on to say, we didn't recover from last week.
- [24:02]
Steve
We had some guys out.
- [24:04]
Todd McShay
We had some guys out. Travel. We lost. We didn't recover from last week. Emotion, basically. Emotionally, is what he was saying. We had some guys out that we lost in that game and travel. And then he goes on to say. He finishes it with.
- [24:29]
Steve
He did say that's on me at some point. I know he said that.
- [24:33]
Todd McShay
I. This is why I pause. I'm sorry. Last week, injuries from last week, travel. But then he goes on to say, it's my responsibility. That's a joke, right? It's got to be a joke because you're basically saying my players. You're saying my players didn't respond emotionally from last week. They weren't able to get back up after last week. It was so disappointing. You're saying my players, a few of them were injured in that game and weren't ready to play. We didn't. We lost a few guys against Oregon so we couldn't beat UCLA. How many points they score against New Mexico?
- [25:11]
Steve
10.
- [25:12]
Todd McShay
Correct. And then you're saying the travel was too hard. Well, you know. Do you know Ohio State the week before made almost an identical trip.
- [25:22]
Steve
Right.
- [25:22]
Todd McShay
Oh, if go look in the map, Ohio to Pacific Northwest, Washington. It's pretty much the same trip as.
- [25:29]
Steve
State, LA to la.
- [25:31]
Todd McShay
Okay. In fact, State College, LA might be a little shorter. Shorter of a trip. I'm not sure. And then he goes on to. So. So to me, James Franklin is much more concerned about walking out there and starting with. Didn't recover emotionally. Players were injured in that game and the travel and giving all the excuses and then circling back to. But I take responsibility.
- [26:02]
Steve
Right.
- [26:03]
Todd McShay
It's just a word salad, man. When you're putting it on your players and injury and travel in circumstance that. Do you think Nick Saban would ever come out and say, like, mutter one of those. Those things as excuses.
- [26:20]
Steve
No.
- [26:21]
Todd McShay
Ever. Did you ever see him?
- [26:23]
Steve
No.
- [26:24]
Todd McShay
He would walk out and he, you know, the other part is, how about you just come out and be raw? How about you come out and just give me your emotion on this and say, we failed today. We failed as a program. This is my program. And there's. There's no room for this in the Penn State program. This is unacceptable. And send a message to your players through the media. Send a message to everyone inside your organization, AKA program. Do whatever you have to, but don't come out and give excuses and then do the little. But this is. But to do like the. I have. I have to say it's my responsibility. It's basically like.
- [27:07]
Steve
It's like there's a lot of pr.
- [27:09]
Todd McShay
It's the worst leadership out there. You and I have sat in locker rooms. We've had head coaches. We've had coaches in multiple sports going back to high school. Like, there's nothing worse than when. When the head coach goes out and subtly blames it on you, on you, the players and the circumstances. And. And then it's like, but it's my responsibility.
- [27:30]
Steve
Yeah.
- [27:32]
Todd McShay
So the coaching staff head by James Franklin did not have their players prepared.
- [27:38]
Steve
Well, not only that, here's what I also think is interesting is they didn't. They never really adjusted defensively during the game. So not only were you not prepared, but then you didn't adjust and put your players in the position after that. You never really changed what you were doing to make sure that this, this would stop or get. Or at least get your players to understand what they needed to do. I mean, there was a systematic fix failure on defense today for Penn State.
- [28:01]
Todd McShay
But if you really go back and study and I've had the unfortunate.
- [28:08]
Steve
Role.
- [28:08]
Todd McShay
In this and, and having, and, and doing pregame stuff and dealing with whether it's injury reports, stories out there and not getting true information. And there's always this. It's kind of. I feel like people nationally and I'm gna said like, I'm not sitting here trying to like undercut James Franklin and do all that stuff. I'm just telling you, like, eventually flaws in leadership will come to the surface. And today I think the nation got to see those flaws because he. I'll give you, I'll give James Franklin one thing. He is almost always like, basically always won the games. He's supposed to win. His. His teams win the games are supposed to win. Yeah. Everyone. So everyone rightfully so, and he, and he, he knows the thing and he walks out and says it's not. Whatever his quote was last week. It's, you know, it's, it's not speculation, blah, blah, blah. It's fact. And we haven't won these big games, right? But eventually this rises to the surface and I think today we saw the first bit. I want to be careful how I frame this. If you're not real, you're not going to get the real results in the long term. You can despise certain coaches, but the real ones get the real results over time and it's consistent and everyone loses a game and, you know, things happen and all that stuff. But I'm curious to see how Penn State goes from here. And I'm very curious, I'm very curious to see what the presidents and the decision makers and all that, what they're seeing now from James Franklin.
- [29:57]
Steve
So two things really quickly. I saw this take from a Penn State where I would assume a Penn State fan on, on X. And it kind of honestly just bummed me out where it was. We can't, we can't get a new coach because that coach might not win 10 games a year for us. And I, and I was, I'm thinking, is that what Penn State fans want now? They just want the 10 games a year and they go to a good bowl and, and that's good. And we don't compete for national championships. We don't ever win the big game, but it's all right, just win 10. I was like, what is the, what's the standard there now? What's the standard for that program? Because the Penn State that I want them to be is the Penn State that, that plays for national championships. So the fact that there was actually a Penn State, it's almost like the stages of grief and they're trying to deal with whatever is going on. The second thing I'll say to the, to you is, and this is a question because I, and I can answer first if you want. If you, if you know you're going to move on at this point, if Penn State knows they are going to move on, do you do it now or do you wait?
- [30:55]
Todd McShay
I feel badly. I'm reading this chat. I, I do it now.
- [31:00]
Steve
I would do it now, too.
- [31:01]
Todd McShay
I would do it now. But I don't, I don't foresee that happening at all.
- [31:05]
Steve
And I don't take any.
- [31:06]
Todd McShay
Apparently, wife, apparently the WI Fi is not going well. And yes, I'm plugged into a cable. Chase Thompson and I do feel bad. No, it's not. You.
- [31:17]
Steve
All right.
- [31:19]
Todd McShay
Apparently we're back in business now.
- [31:21]
Steve
Good.
- [31:22]
Todd McShay
So I don't know if everyone just missed what I said. I assume in post we'll have it all cleaned up, so you'll have to go back and watch that because I'm certainly not redoing it right now.
- [31:32]
Steve
Fine. Bomb, Hack the Internet.
- [31:34]
Todd McShay
Time bomb. Hack the Internet.
- [31:36]
Steve
Belichick's girlfriend shut down.
- [31:39]
Todd McShay
Ah. I'll give you. I'll give you a 10 second synopsis if you missed it. Leadership. Poor leadership eventually surfaces. And I think today was the first time we saw poor leadership surface. When you start to make excuses in the first three things you say at a press conference. I are excuses and kind of subtly blaming it on your players and the circumstances. And then you use the word salad and kind of. And, and that. The whole PR thing of. But it's my. I take responsibility. Those are just words, man. If you come out and you're not taking responsibility and then you just say, but it's my responsibility. I take responsibility. No, it's my responsibility. I wrote it down. It means nothing. It means nothing to anyone watching what you're saying. It means nothing to the media. But most importantly, it means nothing to those players in the locker room. Because you know who has the best detector in the world? Football players. For some reason, we're not the smartest group always. We got all sorts of problems and issues, but for some reason, maybe it's because there's like 53 in the NFL and there's like 80 to 90 in college. And like whether if one person doesn't pick up on it, the next guy does. And everyone realizes whatever it is, like we sniff through a player, sniff through it.
- [33:13]
Steve
And so I spend a lot of time together. They work a ton together. They, they just.
- [33:19]
Todd McShay
It.
- [33:19]
Steve
You can't get away with being less than genuine. You just can't do it.
- [33:23]
Todd McShay
And so when you didn't have your team prepared, you don't blame it on the travel, you don't blame it on injuries from last travel.
- [33:28]
Steve
Man, what are we talking about?
- [33:30]
Todd McShay
Yeah, so anyway, listen, can I say something?
- [33:33]
Steve
The travel is a real thing.
- [33:35]
Todd McShay
I'm not saying has a problem on.
- [33:39]
Steve
Its hand like this.
- [33:40]
Todd McShay
This is not sustainable. Like you watch some of the outcomes and you watch some of the up and down performance. The travel is a thing.
- [33:48]
Steve
It's not the thing you bring up after losing the use.
- [33:50]
Todd McShay
But it wouldn't be for Kirby Smart. It wasn't for Nick Saban. It wasn't for Urban Meyer, whether love him or hate him, like, for the. For the. Has Dan Lanning ever, like, made it? Maybe I'm missing. Yeah.
- [34:02]
Steve
I don't know how the Ducks were able to do it after traveling across.
- [34:04]
Todd McShay
The country last week.
- [34:05]
Steve
With all that travel, they must have some. Yeah, they must have had some other game plan for them to come all the way to your place cross country and win that game. Like, what are you talking about?
- [34:16]
Todd McShay
Yeah, so. So, yeah, that's my take. And hopefully I do apologize. It's. It's obviously not anyone's fault. We're all connected to cables. We're not sitting on watch. Wi Fi. Bill Simmons didn't hack in. Paul Feinbaum didn't hack in. Kuiper didn't hack in. I saw that. But I do appreciate the humor, and if you want to get the whole rant, I guess we'll just. I know Tucker will fix it in post, and we'll have to watch it tomorrow. All right, let's get on to some of the other games. I do want to come back to Miami, Florida State. Okay. Now, you know, let's just. Let's do it. It's fresh on the mind, and I'm. I'm glad we kind of got that out of the way, but it's fresh on the mind. A couple things stood out to me. The first drive. The first. First drive and a half. I think it was the first. No, it was the first drive. Malzan and Cast Castellanos early on. That's what it was supposed to look like for four quarters, Right. That first. Like, they were testing Miami's eye discipline. That one. It was. It was some. Some misdirection. I think it was a running back snuck out of the backfield or whatever it was. He's now kind of on a wheel route type of deal. Going down the right side.
- [35:36]
Steve
And Chroma. Yep, the freshman Chroma.
- [35:39]
Todd McShay
Okay. And. And. And. And Castellanos connects on that big play. Then Castellanos comes out, next play, and he. And he takes off running. So now we got throw, you know, through the air, on the ground, bang, bang. Then they run like a reverse. It only picks up four, but it just felt like things were rolling, right.
- [35:57]
Steve
Yeah.
- [35:57]
Todd McShay
They don't finish that drive. They kick a field goal. It's three nothing. But you felt like, oh, there's this. This is gonna. It's gonna be a. The back.
- [36:07]
Steve
They move the ball against everyone. They didn't lose to Virginia because they can't. Couldn't move the ball. They've moved the ball against everyone. So you felt like, oh, this. This is an offense that can. That they can compete with this Miami defense.
- [36:18]
Todd McShay
But then Heatherman. But then Corey Heatherman kicked in and not. And I'm only saying Corey Heatherman because, like, I don't even think. Quite honestly, I don't even think it was, like, major adjustments after the first drive. No, I think it was. Fellas, we expected that. It's okay. Yeah, we held him. Great job. Holding them to three. Let's remember all the things we drilled in. All week long, we've been working on this. It's okay. We're good. Hey. Hey, linebacker. You know. You know that read. Keep on. Let's. Let's go. Let's regroup. Great job. Let's go. They calm down defensively, and when they calm down, they read their keys. And when they read their keys, they play fast and they play vicious. Is. Heatherman talks about.
- [37:02]
Steve
It is a. It is fun to watch. I also like that Heatherman covers his. He covers his mouth whenever he makes a call. He's always like. He's. He's like that paranoid coordinator of like, I'm not giving them anything, man. I'm not gonna give you.
- [37:14]
Todd McShay
A lot of guys do now, but. Yeah, but he's. His energy on the sideline is nuts.
- [37:19]
Steve
Awesome. It's great. It's. It's awesome.
- [37:24]
Todd McShay
Jacoby Thomas, man, he is turning into something.
- [37:28]
Steve
I was not really that familiar with him until tonight.
- [37:31]
Todd McShay
I wasn't either. Middle Tennessee, Transferred to Tennessee one year in 2024, Tennessee transfers here to Miami with and. And meets up with Heatherman. And Heatherman is getting the most out of this cat. Like, I have to go study the tape. I was just gonna say it almost feels like some similarity to what we're seeing with Harold Perkins at lsu. And I don't. Just on watching tv because I'm not.
- [37:57]
Steve
Perkins at Ole Miss.
- [38:00]
Todd McShay
That's. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can never pronounce his first name right, but. Yes. But, hey, man, he's. He's six. He's like six one, six two, 200 pounds. Coming up, versatile. He's fast and he's playing fast. And you could. Like, these last two games, he's become a dominant factor because you got dudes up front, right? We know about Reuben Bane. I did a whole thing on him last week. If you want to go see a detailed breakdown, like, the power, the quickness, like the. The way he's setting guys up, he's going to keep getting better with his hands. He's like outside of like blazing speed off the edge, which most of the guys in the end of, like The Boses ran four. I was at both of their pro days. 4, 82 or 4, 84 and 4, 7, 8, I think was the fastest. I think Nick ran a slightly faster time. Whatever it was. A lot of the guys in the league don't. Are not the fastest edge rushers who are putting up the biggest numbers. Okay. And he's just power. And so he even versus the run take. He's taken on two blocks. He's disrupting. The guy who, Who I've been really impressed with is Akeem Mezador, man.
- [39:13]
Steve
Yeah.
- [39:14]
Todd McShay
From the defensive line. He was leading the last I checked in the game, like midway through the fourth quarter, leading the team in tackles.
- [39:21]
Steve
Yeah. Those guys play a ton of snaps, by the way.
- [39:23]
Todd McShay
A ton.
- [39:24]
Steve
I'm interested to see how that goes over the course of the season. That's something I'm keeping an eye on because not only do they play a ton of snaps, there's no, like, hidden breaks in there. There's no, like, I'm going to take this one off. Like, I'm going to, you know, maybe not chase to the other side. Those guys are maniacs. I mean, they just go 100 miles every time they're on the field. And, like, it's unbelievable. And I don't think Messador likes the. I say this in a good way. I don't think he likes all the Ruben Bane talk, in a sense of I'm going to be as good as he is. I'm going to compete as hard as he is. Like, I don't see. I don't think Mess thinks he's de too. I think he thinks. And he plays like this, like, I'm going to compete just. I'm going to. I'm going to push him and he's going to push me. You know what I mean? And that's. I mean, he is playing at a very high level right now, and he is. When they kick him inside, it gives them a whole other element. He is a nightmare going against interior offensive linemen. So there's those two. I think Herbstream said he's like. I think he said they might be the best defensive in tandem. If there's a better one. I haven't seen it. I don't know. I can't imagine there's a better one.
- [40:30]
Todd McShay
No, that's. That's the deal right there in South Florida. It's that.
- [40:34]
Steve
Yeah. I mean.
- [40:38]
Todd McShay
I just love Heatherman, man. 44 year old NFL Europe. He's a.
- [40:45]
Steve
He's a 44 year old beard, like a big beard.
- [40:48]
Todd McShay
He's a 44 year old ox. If anyone's from Massachusetts, you know like Oxford, Mass. Like out in the western parts. Oxford, Mass.
- [40:56]
Steve
Ship on his shoulder.
- [40:58]
Todd McShay
Former Division 3 quarterback. Right.
- [41:03]
Steve
Where'd he play?
- [41:04]
Todd McShay
Pittsburgh, I think. Yes. I think so.
- [41:07]
Steve
Okay.
- [41:07]
Todd McShay
X. No, no. Yeah. And then X Rutgers assistant. Bounces around different places. Jmu, all that stuff. Then he fixes Minnesota in one season. Had that thing turned around. They could have used him tonight against Ohio State.
- [41:25]
Steve
That's unfair. But yeah.
- [41:27]
Todd McShay
And you like. Listen, I. I have the greatest love in the world for Massachusetts. I played at Swampscott. I love Massachusetts football. Like swamp's got marblehead rivalry. It was like my life growing up right live here in Cohasset, Massachusetts now. By the way, congratulations. Cohasset. This little tiny Cohasset squad. Small little town. Like right in a little little fisherman area. 3 and 1 on the season. Just beat D2 North Quincy. Beautiful new stadium. Live stream game I to watch from home last night. I was getting ready for today. They got some dudes, man, it's awesome. Yeah.
- [42:08]
Steve
What's their mascot?
- [42:10]
Todd McShay
I don't want to say it. Swab. Scott's the big blue and I bleed big blue blood.
- [42:20]
Steve
That's a great one by the way.
- [42:22]
Todd McShay
The big Blue. It's just the big and welcome to the swamp. It's a skip ice but I was impressed last night. This is a tiny little town. Right. We got good for them. I'm texting AJ my stepson. I think he's on the team. I'm like who's. And he wasn't dressed last night. I'd be like, who's 55? That tall frame D line. Like I can't ever stop like the offensive lines.
- [42:50]
Steve
Right.
- [42:51]
Todd McShay
Controlling up front. This is good. Wildfire. The quarterback, good player.
- [42:57]
Steve
Yeah.
- [42:58]
Todd McShay
Talking about Gus Green is a dude. They're running back. So I'm all over it last night. 88, 50, 55, 58. Like anyway, so I'm just saying tip of the hat to cohasset. I'm impressed. 3 and 1. Never getting a divisional play and they're going to run this thing. But yeah, I have a respect. But I also like Mass. Football is not considered the greatest thing in the world. And he's a D3 quarterback and. And then he go. He's like an ex Rutgers assistant and then he keeps climbing and now he's the perfect fit for one of the best defenses in the country. And he was the missing link. He I'm telling you this Heatherman guy is the missing was the missing link for Mario Crystal Ball because that like they're not going to score like Cam Ward numbers this year. They just don't have the the receivers. The quarterback is playing at a high level and I want to get to that in a second. And someone just asked on the thing. I want to make sure Brian Halterman said fourth round for Beck. We'll go back to the McShay report. We'll give you. We'll kind of clue you into it and maybe it will be fourth round and there's a lot of maybe sort of sort through with that. I do I I would have said fourth. I would have said day three coming into the year, so much uncertainty, so many things wrong. But I'm seeing a much more decisive quarterback this year. And what did I say after we did a whole report. So please go back and watch the Wednesday actually Thursday morning the McShay Show. But more importantly, I think if you want a deep dive on where back is as an NFL prospect right now, I did in the McShay report last week Google and McShay report. You know, please, I missed double down.
- [44:35]
Steve
Can we do a double down again?
- [44:36]
Todd McShay
We'll get a double down going for you. That was your favorite. But my point is on Beck I said in the I said in there the one thing that I have seen that's missing and sometimes it's him, sometimes it's the receiver. This Miami offense in general was missing the deep ball. So I'm watching tonight. And that first deep ball he throws to Malachi. Tony covered beautifully. DB on him. But the ball was dropped in perfectly. It would have been a brutally hard catch. Doesn't make the catch. And that's honestly it was like I get would have been a brilliant catch. Doesn't make it. But I'm like that ball was there. The timing's there. That looks better. And I had everyone yelling at me about JoJo Trader and there's another receiver to a young guy. His name doesn't come to mind right now. It doesn't really matter. The point is they but everyone said well you didn't you JoJo Trader is going to come. He's. He's coming out of nowhere. The the vertical game is going to be fixed from Traders. Hey, by the way folks, Traders Trader was an active scratch. He was an active scratch last Kane's.
- [45:39]
Steve
Fans who were like doing that deep dive.
- [45:41]
Todd McShay
Yeah. Their last game. He was an active scratch. So like which is fine. Like, I think the coaching staff is like, do we want to plug him in right now? We got a good thing going. So it was a timing issue and it was Beck not kind of missing and not being. And then sometimes the receiver. So to see him come out and make that throw, I was like, this is a good sign. Even though it was incomplete. And then the next. Great. And then the. CJ Daniels had the 47 yard catch down the field. Then the flea flicker touchdown to Tony for 44 yards. Beautiful throw, those.
- [46:15]
Steve
Unbelievable throw. Unbelievable execution. But what a call it was.
- [46:19]
Todd McShay
It was so. So if you're watching all this and you're studying it as, like, intently as I was this week for a day and a half, Beck and Bane and you. And you're saying yourself there's really kind of one thing missing and that's the vertical passing game. And you see them come out against Florida State and there it is and you're like, okay, maybe. Maybe this is legitimately one of only two or three elite teams in college football. And we'll get to the AP top 12. I. We got stuff to cut up. I'm saying, like, I don't have a problem with as high as you want to put them.
- [47:01]
Steve
We can. We. I don't know if we could talk about Malachon. Malachi. Tony, enough, man. He pulled away after the catch and then the deep ball like I. He is. We've already said it. Even the way he had a feel for the sticks early in this game and he. He was right at the sticks on that route and he just falls forward. Just the instinct there. Everything about his game other than his size is impressive. It's just. I can't say it enough. He's just different.
- [47:33]
Todd McShay
I hear you. He is different. And did you see the one touchdown he had that was called back?
- [47:38]
Steve
I was.
- [47:39]
Todd McShay
People think I'm ignoring mention. I'm not. I'm just double. I'm multitasking.
- [47:44]
Steve
It's fine. I'm used to it.
- [47:45]
Todd McShay
It's cool. I know. Honestly, if people. If people bugged our conversations over the years, it's exactly how it goes. I come right back to you, and then you. And then you'll be looking something up and you'll ignore me and. Yeah, but I think. I'm sure for people watching and listening, they're like, do they have like a. Is there a cohesion issue here?
- [48:06]
Steve
Well, sometimes you got to remember that we're actually doing a show and not just.
- [48:09]
Todd McShay
Yeah, I know, but I feel like it's kind of better if we don't. The touchdown that Tony. The touchdown that Tony had.
- [48:15]
Steve
I feel like. How do I feel like I missed this.
- [48:17]
Todd McShay
That was called back. There was a holding and he like broke a couple. Yeah, it was pretty wild.
- [48:22]
Steve
Oh yeah. Oh, yes.
- [48:23]
Todd McShay
No, no.
- [48:24]
Steve
It was called back because I think it was down the left sideline.
- [48:27]
Todd McShay
Yeah, down the left rail. Yep.
- [48:29]
Steve
Yes.
- [48:29]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [48:30]
Steve
Yeah. And it was called back as the illegal shift because the guy went towards the line of scrimmage.
- [48:34]
Todd McShay
What did Tony finished with? Because like that would have been another.
- [48:37]
Steve
Like 40 or 50 easy and another touchdown. Seven for 107 and two touchdowns.
- [48:45]
Todd McShay
So he would have had like eight for 150 something and two.
- [48:50]
Steve
Yeah.
- [48:51]
Todd McShay
Remarkable.
- [48:52]
Steve
They didn't actually Miami.
- [48:53]
Todd McShay
I'm just.
- [48:53]
Steve
Because you just asked me to look at that number like Miami had 32 carries for 97 yards. They didn't run the ball that well tonight.
- [49:00]
Todd McShay
Who does my.
- [49:01]
Steve
I wish to.
- [49:02]
Todd McShay
No, I hear you.
- [49:03]
Steve
I'm on their schedule right now or in the playoff. What are you saying?
- [49:08]
Todd McShay
The regular season. Okay.
- [49:11]
Steve
I don't know.
- [49:12]
Todd McShay
It's over, man.
- [49:13]
Steve
That's what I mean. So you're asking me lieu of their.
- [49:16]
Todd McShay
Next game is their toughest and at SMU's their toughest game. They're going to be.
- [49:21]
Steve
I think. I think.
- [49:22]
Todd McShay
Hey, let's. Let's find out. I'm curious. What. What are they favored by Louisville at home next week? It's gotta. It's gotta be 1714.
- [49:33]
Steve
I wouldn't be surprised.
- [49:35]
Todd McShay
Yeah, Louisville lost tough one to Virginia, played well but. But couldn't find a way to win. At sm you will be like Virginia.
- [49:44]
Steve
Two defensive touchdowns.
- [49:46]
Todd McShay
The rest of their games mensch. It's Stanford, Syracuse, which last I looked today where they were. They were losing.
- [49:52]
Steve
Well, they get. They're down to their backup quarterback now.
- [49:55]
Todd McShay
And yeah, Stanford it goes Louisville at home, Stanford at SMU. Then Syracuse, NC State, both at home. And then two road games at the end of year. Virginia Tech and then Pit who just changed their quarterback because things weren't going well.
- [50:16]
Steve
Yeah, but they smoked D.C. today.
- [50:17]
Todd McShay
Yeah. So maybe the backup's better than Holstein. Eli. Excuse me. This episode is brought to you by Fox 1. Fox 1 is now live stream all your fox favorites together in one place. From Major league baseball postseason to NFL on Fox to big noon Saturdays with Fox one. You get it all live start your seven day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox one for complete terms and conditions. Fox one streaming now.
- [50:50]
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- [51:26]
Steve
Been wearing a lot.
- [51:27]
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- [51:59]
Todd McShay
All right, let's move on from this game. We got a lot to get to.
- [52:02]
Steve
Yes.
- [52:04]
Todd McShay
Vanderbilt, Alabama.
- [52:06]
Steve
Thank you.
- [52:08]
Todd McShay
Go ahead. You sound, you sound excited.
- [52:11]
Steve
I. There's a lot of things to be excited about from the Alabama standpoint. I will say this, it ended up 30 to 14. I thought Vanderbilt went in there and gave them a pretty damn good game. And I, you know, I think Vanderbilt. I don't know if Vanderbilt. What fans want to hear this. I'm sure the team doesn't want to hear about how they're not a buy in the SEC anymore or about how much progress. But you know what they have, they are a better team than they have been historically. And you know, it's worth saying they're 5 and 1. You know, this is the second loss in the SEC. Like Vanderbilt's a pretty good team and I think that's important to mention because we've been pretty high on Alabama and man, they just went out and did what we thought they were going to do or what they should do, which was Ty Simpson had a great day. Those wide receivers are awesome. Your guy, Jeremy Bernard does, you know, like is. Is a great route runner. Makes all kinds of plays. Ryan Williams makes plays. I think Isaiah Horton is wildly underrated and that we're not talking about him enough. I mean, those three receivers plus Ty Simpson, which I want to ask you about something with him going forward. But that passing game is great. And then the running game came alive today and you looked at that drive, that was an Alabama drive to close out this game. That was Alabama football, man. That was. We, you know what's coming and we don't give a shit. We're still going to run it down your throat. We're going to close out this game. This is our place, this is our game. All like the, the attitude of that was okay. Now it feels like a little bit like Alabama's back, like that's a. All of a sudden you got that high power offense with those awesome wide receivers. Like, again, this looks familiar to me, you know. Now the defense, I don't think the defense is quite as good as some of the historical Alabama defenses, but it's good enough. It's good enough.
- [54:01]
Todd McShay
And, and getting better.
- [54:03]
Steve
Yes, yes, I would agree with that.
- [54:05]
Todd McShay
And I'll get to the defense in a second. Like the main character almost was never the quarterback at Alabama during their glory years. Like 2011, 2012, you know, about 22,000, whatever it was, it was always the running back, right? Trent Richardson, Mark Ingram, you know, like, it was always the running back. Every year it was, it was a first rounder and the backup was a first rounder. But like wanted one more year to. Before or I had to play, had to play one more year before he's eligible to be a first rounder. You know, like it was bang, bang, bang. The main character though for Alabama now is Ty Simpson with those receivers. That's the main character. What was missing though, what was concerning to me when j. When Jam Miller was out and there's this guy, Justice Haynes up in Ann Arbor, who by the way is rushed for over a hundred yards and, and a touchdown plus in every game this year. I'm saying, why? What did, what did they do? And I'm still not done saying that completely, but I finally today, for the first time with my own eyes, got to see this. It's cool if that's the main character, but if you're going to be a complete football team, you, you gotta have really good supporting actors. And the run game is the most important supporting actor, right?
- [55:33]
Steve
Yeah.
- [55:33]
Todd McShay
Like Matt Damon's nothing in Goodwill Hunting without Ben Affleck.
- [55:39]
Steve
Right?
- [55:41]
Todd McShay
It's true. Okay.
- [55:42]
Steve
They need, yep, they need one.
- [55:44]
Todd McShay
Damon was awesome, but they need each other. Okay. And so when I'm watching Jan Miller and I'm watching, oh, he's got 20, he's got a 22 carries, 136. Not a monster day. But I watched them control.
- [55:57]
Steve
Great day, though.
- [55:58]
Todd McShay
I, I watched them control. They flipped the script from a year ago and, and I like the way that they control it. They possessed it for 40 minutes, man.
- [56:12]
Steve
Yeah. After Vanderbilt did the same to them last year. I mean, they were, you know, I thought it was impressive. All right, I'm gonna ask you this right now because William Gray is asking it in the chat and I, and I kind of agree with them.
- [56:25]
Todd McShay
36 minutes. I'm sorry. Hold on, hold on to that though. Don't lose it. It was 36 minutes. They controlled it for 36 minutes. Eight more first downs, 69 offensive plays compared to Vandy 53. It was almost flipped from a year ago. Yeah, so it was.
- [56:44]
Steve
And they wore their ass down.
- [56:47]
Todd McShay
Wore it down. They scored 40 on them last year. It was like 15, nothing before you could blink. Yeah, they just. The biggest drive in this game for Alabama was right before the half. And I've told you this before, I always told Sean, and I was not bullshitting because I was, there were a couple times where I was leaning towards going, going into the NFL and you know, you know that. Yeah. And wanted to make that climb to the general manager. And I always said if I'm controlling an organization I like Sean McDonough is the best I've ever been around with time management. I texted him during the game and told and reminded him and he starts in on. Because if you really watch, listen to him throughout the game. But then right before the half, he always knows.
- [57:33]
Steve
I know what you're talking about.
- [57:34]
Todd McShay
They should be calling timeouts now. And Deborah, Deborah is going to call timeout or beat him to it. And I could hear it in his voice. Great. I. Great, great decision. He's sitting up there like, great decision, Right. Debor got ahead of it. Don't care if they score three or six, we're going to have a little time for our offense to come back because we coaches are obsessed with that. The middle four, right?
- [57:56]
Steve
Yep. The middle eight.
- [57:57]
Todd McShay
The middle eight, sorry, the middle eight. Yeah, the last, the last four of the first half, the first four of the second half. Obsessed with it. I'm thinking the four minute drill. So the middle eight. So in order to not lose it, we better have time left to get some points on before we go to half and then come back out and do our thing. So he calls timeouts. Perfect. Sets them up. They've got, they've got about two minutes when they get the ball back Right, right around There they go 78 yards, six plays because Deborah got him time so they didn't have to rush that thing, but it did it. On six plays, Ty Simpson goes 5.
- [58:33]
Steve
For 5 and it scored like 17 seconds left or something like that. I mean it was, it was, yeah, pretty much perfection.
- [58:41]
Todd McShay
And, and, and, and then the, the throw and, and McElroy did a great job of documenting it, but like with his eyes, this guy's throwing NFL throws over the middle of the field. Anticipation. He's as Mackel said, like, and he put it per, like into the teeth of the defense. That's like veteran stuff when you're not like give me the out the outbreaking stuff or the crossers that are easy when everyone's rub routs and all. Like, he's doing the stuff that's the hard stuff. And this time he, he with his eyes negotiates that safety just enough. Throws down the left sideline to Jeremy Bernard. Okay, 27 yard touchdown touchdown catch. But he makes the catch with the split second before that safety comes back over. Now why was that safety not there on time? Because Ty Simpson is a first year starting quarterback. Negotiated him just enough.
- [59:33]
Steve
Yeah.
- [59:33]
Todd McShay
And, and so this all.
- [59:35]
Steve
It's so much fun to watch.
- [59:36]
Todd McShay
Oh, it's, it's like, it's, it's, it's like watching Traeger DiPietro and Martha's Vineyard paint a painting.
- [59:44]
Steve
I don't know who that is.
- [59:46]
Todd McShay
Well, you should because he's one of the best artists in the world. No, he's one of my, one of my best friends and he's, he lives in the vineyard and he's a great artist. Awesome. Excuse me.
- [59:55]
Steve
All right, William Gray wants to know what, I want to know what and I'll tell you right now. I have a feeling about it. The sacks. Simpson's taking some sacks. He is. There's a couple times you're like, oh, you got a tough position. I'm gonna jump you right now.
- [60:11]
Todd McShay
Took that really bad one late in.
- [60:13]
Steve
The game, but yes, here's why I'm okay with it.
- [60:15]
Todd McShay
Okay.
- [60:16]
Steve
You gotta, you gotta take the good with you got to take the bad with the good a little bit. And he's extending plays and he's eluding. I mean, you think about that touchdown he threw to Isaiah Horton, I think last week in the red zone where he rolled to his right and then he pulled up and avoided a guy and threw it in between three defenders. And I mean he's do. He's making plays when he's extending Plays like that. So one, if you, if you start getting him to throw the ball away or, you know, run and get down, he's going to stop making those plays. I think it's going to make it. Make him less confident in that. So I don't want to take that away from his game. So I'll take a couple of sacks if that's what it means, if I get that return. And the other thing is I kind of have confidence in him to. When they're behind the sticks for him to convert, I think they're in a unique position where if they're, you know, you don't ever want to be second and 15. You don't want to be third and 12. But in a weird way, Alabama's built to convert in those situations. They have. They have the quarterback and the playmakers, so it's not the end of the world if they get behind the stick. So I'll take it if. If it means. If it's. If. If the trade off is not getting as many sacks, but he's not as aggressive. Aggressive making those plays. And I don't want it.
- [61:28]
Todd McShay
No, I hear you. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing. Sometimes you watch a quarterback and you say, like, I don't know if it's going to happen this season. Or sometimes you watch a quarterback. I say, I don't know if he's capable of. The thing that I like with Ty Simpson and what I've seen so far is the, the things that he can improve upon. First of all, they're areas in which he can improve. It's not out of his physical or mental capacity to improve. And second of all, their little. I don't want to say niche, niche, or like, there's specific things where you can go back into the lab and you can look at and say, all right, how do we do this better? And. And the offensive coaching staff, the coordinator and quarterback coach can say, tell me what you saw. If this is. This seems to be a problem that's come up a couple times. So what can we do? What, what, what guardians or, you know, some, some borders or barricades can we put in place? How can we speed up your eyes on this? There are things that are, like, specific. Do you know what I mean? These are not overarching problems. These are not things that are beyond his mental or physical capability. These are things. It's like, oh, we've gotten. We've got all the big things down now. We've whittled down to, like, the kind of the fun Stuff. Let's, let's get a little better here. Let's get a little better here. Let's do it each week. You know, I think it'll just keep getting better, man.
- [63:02]
Steve
X Factor said a couple things on here that were interesting about. He said that in, in the press conference, Simpson acknowledged it, said he can't take those sacks, but also that the same play that he took the bad sack that you were talking about was the same play that he threw the touchdown Ryan Williams on. So that's what I'm talking about. They're very similar plays and sometimes it doesn't pay off, but other times there's a big payoff, you know what I mean?
- [63:24]
Todd McShay
That's very much.
- [63:25]
Steve
He's, he is in, he's in gradual level quarterback courses right now. He's doing quarterback 101. It's quarterback. It's graduate stuff of. Okay, you already have got reached to a level where we can work on these certain issues.
- [63:40]
Todd McShay
And I like, I appreciate. One of my favorite parts about doing the show is like, is the live chat and everyone who's in here and like. And yeah, some people are angry, some people are drunk, some people are silly, some people are all that stuff and that's fine.
- [63:54]
Steve
People are trying to get, get people fired. Hoss.
- [63:57]
Todd McShay
Yeah, but Haas has become a staple, man. I, I like where Haas has settled into a group with this show. But I, but I, I like the feedback and like the back and forth and these are like important things to cover when you're talking about this game because I think it takes it somewhere where probably not a lot of shows or people are taking it and talking about. But I also, I think it's important, I think it was important for us to have that conversation because it's different from what you're going to hear and talk about in a lot of other places. Yeah, I also don't want to bury the lead and the lead in this whole thing is a. Kane Womack's defense was the, like the actual show. This defense, man, like pre, predating Womack, predating DeBoer. This defense is all going back to Nick. One of the greatest defensive coaches of all time. One of the greatest head coaches. The greatest college football head coach of all time.
- [65:01]
Steve
Yeah, no question.
- [65:04]
Todd McShay
They always had trouble with like the misdirection, the mobile quarterback combination. Guys, you know, they, they just did. Okay.
- [65:11]
Steve
I thought the shovel pass was going to get them again today. I was like, come on man, enough with the shovel pass.
- [65:16]
Todd McShay
Hey Tucker, these things are driving my ears crazy and I can't bounce around. Tucker did text me this week and said he there they're on the phone with bows. I want portable stuff. I want to be on the move. I like, I keep hearing that they've got the best stuff out there. I want him on our show and Tucker will get that done anyway. Womack though did something today that, that like had to happen for this Alabama team and he just said I'm on it. I know you are, Tuck. But also it was really encouraging to see because it hasn't happened. You know, like they've had problems with this on and off for a long time, ever since I've been covering college football. And so they came out today and, and early on it was like, oh.
- [66:01]
Steve
You know, it didn't look good early. Right?
- [66:03]
Todd McShay
It didn't look good early. And remember they gave up 40 last year and, and so, so to, so to see that happen all of a sudden now it gets into your players heads like here we go again.
- [66:15]
Steve
Yeah.
- [66:16]
Todd McShay
All the stuff that they coached us on, maybe it's not right or am I reading the wrong thing or my eyes in the wrong. When you start sexually, do I need.
- [66:21]
Steve
To do more than my job? Do I start taking myself out of position? All that stuff snowballs so fast again. Remember these are 21, 22 year old kids. Like it's hard to hold your water in that situation and, and just, you know, what do they say it now? Farm your land. Is that what the, the new saying is?
- [66:38]
Todd McShay
Farm your own land or something like that? Yeah, one of many.
- [66:43]
Steve
I like that one. I think it's pretty good.
- [66:45]
Todd McShay
Yeah. But to watch them all of a sudden settle in and to show discipline and to wait a quarter count longer instead of, instead of shooting your gun as a linebacker and to be a little cautious of maybe, maybe I'm taking the cheese.
- [67:03]
Steve
Yep.
- [67:04]
Todd McShay
Maybe that carrot that's dangling is not the meal. Right?
- [67:08]
Steve
Yep.
- [67:09]
Todd McShay
And you could see and then they started playing faster because they got confident that, that, that stuff's. There's nothing like the magician gets you with his left hand, but he's really, he's really sticking it to you with his right. Right. That's the trick is with the right, but, but the magic is with the left. And they started to figure that out and they started and so they, then they started to get confidence in it. And then guys started playing fat like this. Yonze Pierre, he's a problem. Where the, the hell.
- [67:44]
Steve
Where have you been?
- [67:45]
Todd McShay
I don't, I, I, I, I, I forget some names occasionally. Once I learn your name. I don't forget your name in, in sports. I do in out in real life all the time. Yeah, but, but I would if I had, if I had much dealings with Yonze before, I would have remembered that Yonze Pierre is a problem and they're missing a couple guys and they're, they were dinged up. But, but Deborah wasn't complaining about that in his PO in his post press conference. LT Overton's still doing his thing and he's playing really well. I like lt. And you were on him early. He's your guy. And so it all came together and Womack like give some love to womb defense.
- [68:25]
Steve
The safety Keon Sab had a nice sad.
- [68:28]
Todd McShay
He had a pick. He almost had another one. And they shut, they shut our guy up.
- [68:36]
Steve
Yeah, no, they shut him shut out in the second half.
- [68:43]
Todd McShay
Nothing in the second half which is remarkable. And, and you know, it was the first time I've. And I, and I, I, I, I haven't watched a ton, but I went back and watched all the tape from the season this week to get a, to get a beat on this game because that's what I wanted to dive into. Why is it this lesser talent team is beating Alabama and we said that Alabama gets different this year but why is my. This isn't pulling up. I wanted to see would Pavea finish with Pavia? Sir.
- [69:19]
Steve
I gotcha. 21 for 35, 198 yards, one touchdown, one interception, 12 carries, 58 yards. But he had a 36 yard run. And then after that it was 22.
- [69:32]
Todd McShay
But they, but they forced to, they forced two turnovers from, from Pavia. Right. From da fumble.
- [69:38]
Steve
And the fumble. The interception. Yep. Right, the Fumble. That rip was beautiful. I mean that was a thing of beauty.
- [69:45]
Todd McShay
He had a 93 yard drive to start the game, but he fumbled on the second drive. He had the interception later in the game. Finished 21 of 35, as you said. Right. And, and when they needed him, when Diego, when the Diego magic normally happens, they weren't here for it. It was awesome.
- [70:04]
Steve
Yeah.
- [70:04]
Todd McShay
If you're a Bama fan, this is the most encouraged like this to me for some reason feels even more encouraging than beating Georgia. That game's always a war. I know it sounds stupid. This was at Alabama that was between the hedge. I'm not saying it's a better win, don't get me wrong. I'm saying like from a program standpoint, I feel like there's a lack of trust in DeBoer and his program. If you're. If you're in Tuscaloosa, there's been this lack of trust. Is the consistency going to be there? And so to. To be here was the problem with this game. Vanderbilt's actually a good football team. Right. And. But Vanderbilt still is named Vanderbilt. Like the gilded age. Right. It's kind of an SEC joke. And I know it's trending the other way, and I know this is a good football team and all those things, but it's hard to get your players up after Georgia for this game.
- [71:07]
Steve
Yeah.
- [71:09]
Todd McShay
Even though they got beat a year ago. And then just go into the exos. Forget the emotional part. This is a team that scored 40 on you last year. And people are saying this defense isn't as good and sure didn't look as good against Florida State in week one, you know, like. And that was a mobile court. There were just a lot of elements to this game that pointed towards this could be a problem. So I don't know. I just thought that this was, like, highly encouraging.
- [71:36]
Steve
I was trying to figure out where Alabama. Yeah. Do you know that Al this. I realized this this week, and it really goes to your point. Do you know that when Alabama lost to Vanderbilt last year, you know who they beat the week before? Georgia.
- [71:55]
Todd McShay
Georgia.
- [71:56]
Steve
And you know who they. You know what they were ranked going into that Vanderbilt game? First overall. They were one. They were ranked one. They go in, they lose that Vanderbilt game, they lose to Tennessee. Two weeks later, they end up losing to Oklahoma, and that's it. That was. That was the end of it. So it kind of. That's why you've got that trauma. You've got the 2024 trauma of. I saw them beat Georgia last year, and then they went in and then they went to Vanderbilt and lost, and then the wheels kind of came off. So in a way, I get it. You're saying. I've already seen them beat Georgia. I haven't seen them come back and take care of business the next week. And that's what this team did this year. Are you muted? I can't hear you.
- [72:43]
Todd McShay
I. I was muted.
- [72:45]
Steve
There you are.
- [72:45]
Todd McShay
I was trying not to cough in everyone's ear again.
- [72:48]
Steve
All right, we're back.
- [72:49]
Todd McShay
The technical problems. The first time we've ever actually had, like, real technical problems.
- [72:52]
Steve
I think we're handling well.
- [72:53]
Todd McShay
Oh, I think it's great. I think, like, you have to have. You have to have conflict and. And you have to overcome things. Right. Texas, Florida, number nine. Texas at Florida.
- [73:06]
Steve
There's a. Yeah, there's a lot to get into here. I'm gonna let you go.
- [73:14]
Todd McShay
I thought the Gators came out and shocked me, so I can't imagine how I, I don't know what the Texas was. I was shocked with that first drive of the game. Okay, this is a team that has not been able to move the football. This is a team of the quarterback that has, that has made some horrible decisions. This is a team offensively that has struggled mightily on ALM in almost every game. Offensively, but especially against good defenses. This is one of the best defenses in the entire country. They hadn't like whatever was broke. They hadn't given up something in the first quarter or the first drive, maybe it was a touchdown. The first drive dating back to like 1823 or something. Like whatever it was, whatever.
- [73:53]
Steve
Leather helmets. It's a leather helmet.
- [73:56]
Todd McShay
So like the thing that, that, that fanduel and everyone like the thing that no one expected was Florida gets the ball and drives down the field with a balanced offense, plays from their quarterback and the running game, the running backs and scores on Texas. And that's what they did. And then they go, they go up 10 nothing. And there it looks like. So is this office like really going to happen today? Like I'm confused. They go up 10 nothing. Then Manning to his roommate Livingston.
- [74:28]
Steve
Yep.
- [74:29]
Todd McShay
Got that chunk play. Awesome catch you got. He got banged up on that play. But then, then the bootleg after that to wiser, I'm like, oh, so we're so Texas in Florida. Is this going to be a shootout?
- [74:42]
Steve
Yeah.
- [74:43]
Todd McShay
What's going on? And then, and then Florida scores again. 17 7. Then this was the play. It, it wasn't game over, but this was the play. When you look back at this game where you say things really could have been different, even though this was Florida's game almost really from the jump it felt like that.
- [75:04]
Steve
Right.
- [75:05]
Todd McShay
There were a couple times where Texas. It felt like, okay, Texas is ready to kick it into gear and they're only one lag way bad decision away. Right. Kind of felt like that a couple times. There was a 10 minute stretch in this game where Arch played really well. He did Arch that one throw and.
- [75:23]
Steve
I don't have the Wingo, the 38 yard touchdown when he kind of climbed.
- [75:28]
Todd McShay
Reset his feet and threw it to Wingo for the touchdown. Yeah, that was his best play. Combination of like feet moving, extending, but then resetting and throw for a touchdown. That was his best play of the entire season.
- [75:45]
Steve
I agree.
- [75:46]
Todd McShay
But there was this little. This. It was 17:7. Arch misses the wide open wide receiver. Now granted it was almost similar. Like he's climbing but he doesn't get his feet set or no, he's climbing to his right and the defender was on him. He off platform. Really like unbalanced. Terrible spot to have to throw the ball from. But it's a wide open receiver. Mosley number three. It's touchdown if he hits right. And that's on third down. So they come out and punt and they get the punt block safety. That two play stretch. Texas possessed the ball. That was like tough to overcome, right?
- [76:26]
Steve
Yeah. That wasn't the back breaker though.
- [76:29]
Todd McShay
No, go ahead.
- [76:30]
Steve
You know, I'll let you talk. You. No, no, guy. The back breaker was the. The uber talented freshman going 55 yards on your ass to make it 2914. Dallas Wilson is going to be.
- [76:45]
Todd McShay
Going to be a dude. I was going to get to that. Yeah.
- [76:48]
Steve
Yeah. That's the backbreaker because at that point it's still, it's still a one possession game after the Wingo touchdown. I mean you're, you're. This looks okay. Like Texas can still get back into it. There's, there's the whole fourth quarter left and then leg way at the end of the third, throws at the 55 yarder.
- [77:08]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [77:08]
Steve
What are you gonna say?
- [77:09]
Todd McShay
No, I, because I want, I want to close the book on Texas and I'm in this like this weird spot where it's like Florida won this game so we're gonna finish with Florida because I want to actually talk about the team that won the game and give. And give the respect fair. I feel like I've talked about Arch as much as any player in the country because of everything that's going on, the circumstances. I think we all know where Arch is. I do want to say I'm more encouraged by this performance than I have been at any point during this season as a starter. I think he had to grab his, you know, what's today. And I think there were moments and, and, and if you're hopeful, if you're Texas, if you're Sarkeesian and everyone, this becomes the, like the next step because that in the second half we can win a lot of games with. It wasn't enough but like there was something that kind of clicked where it was like this emergency mode. I gotta stop thinking and gotta stop making it perfect. Gotta. And let's just go. So there was a, there was an encouraging aspect to this, but no one in Austin gives a about encouraging. They're three and two. They're three and two and that. And that guy wearing the Manning jersey was supposed to be the difference because we got everything else allegedly. And yours was just mid and this guy way better than mid. He's a Manning, so he hasn't been that. But it was really promising. And I think there's. But this is a two year deal with Arch. Okay.
- [78:48]
Steve
Yep. That's clear now.
- [78:50]
Todd McShay
But I want to say this. There were three parts of this game. There were three elements to why Texas lost this game.
- [78:57]
Steve
I'm glad you don't.
- [78:58]
Todd McShay
And I don't. I don't even know.
- [79:00]
Steve
It's not all Arch.
- [79:02]
Todd McShay
I don't even know that. Like the defense didn't play up to its level, but they, they battened down the hatches and they, and they, they played well enough for maybe 3/4 of this game. With a competent offense, they can win. They can win this game and just say this was, wasn't our best outing. There are three problems with Texas, man. And one and it's equal parts and it kind of varies a little bit in terms of degree each week. But let's just be honest, it's equal parts. Arch has been nowhere near the product we. That was was that we expected him to be.
- [79:41]
Steve
Yep.
- [79:41]
Todd McShay
So I am, by saying these other two parts, I am not taking anything off of Archer Schultz wars.
- [79:47]
Steve
Right.
- [79:48]
Todd McShay
I'm scared about what we've seen with Arch and I'm hopeful that Arch can kind of take this and re recognize this is how I've got to play. And there's got to be an aggressive mentality to how I do things and all that because if he doesn't, we got much bigger problems.
- [80:06]
Steve
I agree.
- [80:06]
Todd McShay
But we're closing in on that. I'm being honest too. Okay. But there are two other things that were equal parts today. That offensive line sucked. It did.
- [80:20]
Steve
You can't give immediate pressure up the middle and expect your young quarterback to play well. I don't. What do you mean?
- [80:25]
Todd McShay
And I'm going to let you talk on the offensive line in a second. But the third, third equal part. And it's a byproduct. All three things are byproducts of one and the other. If your quarterback's not playing well, then the run game's not going. If the run game's not working, then the more pressure on the quarterback and if the offensive line, then the pressure is coming and we don't have holes to run. It all works together. But where the was the run game for Texas, man, I get it. It's C.J. baxter, the hamstring. And he's. But like, this is Texas.
- [80:55]
Steve
Figure it out, man. You did last year. Everyone was hurt last year too. Like, it's not like you never have running.
- [81:02]
Todd McShay
Wisner is what we know he is. He's a grinder and he's a pounder. And if our game plan is to run 25 plus times, he's going to wear you out like he did against A and M last year. But he's not a featured number one guy. So why don't we have other guys coming in? But I look up at the end of the game. Do you know that Wisner and Clark were the only two running backs at the University of Texas to carry the football today? And they had nine carries for 11 yards. Steve, so you tell me what the problem is.
- [81:35]
Steve
I mean, that Florida State defense is good. Giving them a little bit of credit.
- [81:38]
Todd McShay
I said we'll get to Florida in a minute.
- [81:40]
Steve
Yeah, yeah.
- [81:41]
Todd McShay
When you watch that offensive line. What, like what?
- [81:45]
Steve
It's just, it hasn't come together. I mean, it's just we. They lost a lot in the draft and it just hasn't come together. And I want to, I want to be careful about this because I already talked to like, there's a lot of people reaching out on X asking about this. And there are some things that I saw in the game about not sustaining blocks in the run game, about guys getting again, interior offensive linemen getting be clean, which every quarterback in the world is going to fail in that situation. It's just impossible. There are things that I'm seeing. I do want to go back and watch the tape and be more specific about it, whether it's certain fronts and all that. But. Yeah, no, I mean, I'll just echo what you're saying. They're not playing well enough up front. Like the offensive line hasn't been good enough. And I, and I think, and maybe I share the sentiment with you, I almost feel like we are not being critical enough of that group up front because we don't want to sound like we're being easy on Arch.
- [82:37]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [82:37]
Steve
Or at least I don't. I don't want to sound like him.
- [82:39]
Todd McShay
Because I'm not being easy on Arch. It's a problem. It's not there yet, but it was encouraged. No, but I'll say this much better. I have.
- [82:47]
Steve
I still think that Arch has a very high ceiling. I'm still optimistic about Arch becoming, you know, the quarterback that he's capable of becoming. But he has played. I mean, I don't Know another way of saying it, he has not played well. He's played. It's been disappointing and a little bit and a lot concerning so far. So I got to say those things, and I feel like if I say, oh, by the way, the receivers have dropped some balls or they haven't run the right routes or by the way their offensive line sucked tonight, then people are going to be like, oh, you're just making up excuses for Arch. And so I think they've almost gotten off the hook a little bit. The group, they've not played well up front. They just haven't played well. They had a lot to replace after the draft. They had to bring in four new starters, and it just hasn't come together the way that they would want it to. And they do have injuries at running back, but I don't want to hear about that because they.
- [83:32]
Todd McShay
Honestly, I don't know.
- [83:33]
Steve
They're. They're. They're cursed at that position, but they've had injuries at running back. It feels like every year.
- [83:39]
Todd McShay
No, I know. I don't know. I think we're on the same page. I don't think. I don't think that people are dying to hear about 2 and 3 Florida right now, but I do want to remind people that the SEC is kind of a mess in terms. In the best way. But, like, there's so much talent and so many good teams, and I don't know that there's a team that's as good as Ohio State or Miami in the SEC yet.
- [84:15]
Steve
Okay.
- [84:17]
Todd McShay
I see a couple teams that, at the end of the year, would you.
- [84:20]
Steve
Put Oregon in that group, too?
- [84:22]
Todd McShay
Oh. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
- [84:23]
Steve
Yes, that's okay.
- [84:25]
Todd McShay
Absolutely. I was thinking the two Big Ten teams. Oregon and Ohio State and Miami.
- [84:32]
Steve
Gotcha.
- [84:33]
Todd McShay
I'm with D3 teams right now.
- [84:36]
Steve
I really like Ole Miss. They're not there.
- [84:38]
Todd McShay
Ole Miss isn't quite there yet. Maybe they get there. Georgia's not there yet. Don't count out Kirby. Alabama's getting closer, but I. I don't like. I. I don't see that they're at Ohio State. There's a lot of games to be played, but my. My concern is that there's going to be some teams that lose. And the reason I bring up all this stuff is while. While Florida has two losses, three losses. They only have two in the sec. And I get it. Their. Their schedule is brutal, but like, A M's gettable, man.
- [85:13]
Steve
They are. I love that team, but they are.
- [85:17]
Todd McShay
I really like that team. I can't Love them yet, but I really like them.
- [85:22]
Steve
They're a fireworks show.
- [85:23]
Todd McShay
Mississippi State you can beat. Georgia is not perfect. Like. No, that's what I'm saying. So like if Florida goes on a run the way the Florida was playing last year and there's two reasons that I'm really encouraged. Three, there's three reasons that I'm really encouraged with Florida and then we can move on to the next game. The first, you already touched on this Dallas Wilson cat I had heard so much about. I don't watch high school recruiting tape. He look up his height and weight because he looks like he's 6, 3, 2, 20 already. And the more importantly, he is a grown ass man. Dallas Wilson is a grown ass man and I didn't even know to the level until I saw him catch the ball. He is my Saturday Saturday spotlight player as you see right here if you're watching on YouTube and we appreciate you doing so. Six catches, 111 yards and two touchdowns. Do you know play? Florida's had some pretty damn good wide receivers roll through Gainesville.
- [86:28]
Steve
Yep.
- [86:29]
Todd McShay
You know, it's the first time in 30 years, Mensch, that Florida has had a player debut with over a hundred receiving yards and two touchdown, two touchdowns.
- [86:40]
Steve
Crazy.
- [86:41]
Todd McShay
Thirty years, man. Thirty years. So think about all those guys like the Gaffneys, the Travis Taylors, the Daryl Jackson.
- [86:49]
Steve
Yes.
- [86:50]
Todd McShay
Like he's the first one to just walk in to the Swamp, throw his pads on and be like, let's go. So when I say encouraging, there's three parts of it. He's one of them.
- [87:03]
Steve
Yeah, he's listed at 63195. He's definitely over 200 pounds at this point. I think, I think he was 6319 nothing.
- [87:10]
Todd McShay
195 about what I saw him doing to grow 20, 20, 21 year old man on the defensive side of the ball.
- [87:17]
Steve
Right.
- [87:17]
Todd McShay
He was shaking him. He looked like an NFL cat. He looked like what Jeremiah Smith looked like last, last year.
- [87:23]
Steve
Oh my God. Yeah.
- [87:25]
Todd McShay
Every bit of it. Okay, so, so that's part one. Part two is I've been screaming since week one. Remember what I said? I said, why'd they give Bob the ball six times.
- [87:38]
Steve
Yes.
- [87:38]
Todd McShay
In the first drive and then they gave him 12 times the rest of the game. This guy's different. Feed him. Especially if they're quarterback struggling. Jaden Baugh had 27 carries. It was only 107 yards. But you know what that did? That allowed them to possess. Possess the football. It allowed them to control drives. It allowed them to Slow things down and keep Texas from getting in an offensive rhythm and getting the ball back. It kept them balanced, right? 27 carries is. Is what this guy should be getting. So now all of a sudden, we're showing commitment to the run game with ball. We've got a receiver on the outside who's actually. And I love Vernell Brown, right?
- [88:21]
Steve
The third, he's awesome too, but yeah.
- [88:24]
Todd McShay
He'S awesome, but he's a complimentary piece. He's a slo z. I need a big dude. He's a slot this, right? He's a slot. Whether he's working same side or opposite side. I need an X. I need a Jeremiah Smith. And they got theirs. And then the third part is, we've said this all along. This might be the longest stretch. Do you know this? The longest stretch in which DJ Lagway has been taking first team reps and practicing with the football team.
- [88:57]
Steve
Right?
- [88:57]
Todd McShay
And so, yeah, we're six weeks into the season, but it keeps getting a little bit better. And I know he's not per. But I'm saying. But now we got a weapon. Now we've got a back the offense.
- [89:09]
Steve
He's a downfield guy. He's a downfield passer. And bringing in Dallas Wilson gives him that. That threat.
- [89:19]
Todd McShay
So I'm not going on like fanduel right now and betting the futures on Florida and they're going to make a run and they're going to finish the season like they did last year and win all those games. But I am saying this is a team that might not be totally dead in the water. And this is a team that you, if they keep trending this way, you don't want to face. And I said last week, at some point, this defense, if things don't go well early in this game, at some point, maybe it's this week or next week, at some point this defense is going to just say, we've had enough. It can't give a thousand percent effort. Maybe not.
- [89:55]
Steve
Yeah, maybe not.
- [89:57]
Todd McShay
Like Billy Napier does not get his teams prepared for the start of seasons. Billy Naper's got all the. Billy Napier can't do this. Billy Naper fire this, all that stuff. Tell you one thing that you can never ever say about this man. That his team gives up on and that his team quit. No. So that, that was fun to watch.
- [90:17]
Steve
Before we get off this game.
- [90:18]
Todd McShay
Yeah, go ahead.
- [90:19]
Steve
What were you gonna say?
- [90:24]
Todd McShay
Yeah, hopefully for the folk. I was just say hopefully for the folks down in, in Gainesville that this, this will be Another special ride. And hopefully that the pressure will start reducing on Billy and we just focus on the football. Because there's nothing better than the Swamp. Tom Petty playing fourth quarter, you know, used to be the lighters. Now it's the phones. Like, there's nothing that, you know, like, who doesn't love when this. When the Swamp's involved. And it's still a young group. Yeah.
- [90:49]
Steve
And you want to keep, like, in this day and age, you hope they can keep that roster together. You hope that Brown III and Dallas Wilson are still playing together next year. And if Billy Napier's out, if he's not there, then it opens up the. Like, I don't know. I hope that all these talented skill players in Florida aren't playing it for different teams. And we're talking about how awesome that 20, 26 team could have been for Florida. You know, that being said, before we get off this game, I'm watching this and I'm immediately thinking, Oklahoma, unless I'm crazy, is not going to get John Matiere back this week.
- [91:22]
Todd McShay
No.
- [91:23]
Steve
And now you go against this Texas team. What do you think the spread is? What's the line in that game?
- [91:28]
Todd McShay
I know it have you don't look at our group chat right now.
- [91:31]
Steve
I saw it. I saw it.
- [91:33]
Todd McShay
Yeah.
- [91:35]
Steve
I'm not surprised by it.
- [91:36]
Todd McShay
Texas is minus three and a half.
- [91:40]
Steve
How do you feel about that?
- [91:44]
Todd McShay
I'm not surprised. But if. I wonder what if it was Matier playing, I bet you would be flipped.
- [91:53]
Steve
Oh, I think it would be. I think it would be a higher number. It would be flipped in a higher number for Oklahoma.
- [91:59]
Todd McShay
But I just never. I've covered enough of these games. I see. Like, you just.
- [92:03]
Steve
You don't know. You're right.
- [92:05]
Todd McShay
Wounded. And the wounded animal is the side to bet on in this game, in this rivalry. The problem is in very different weird ways, one's undefeated, one's got two losses. They're both kind of wounded animals.
- [92:18]
Steve
Yeah.
- [92:18]
Todd McShay
Coming in.
- [92:19]
Steve
So I expect both defenses to.
- [92:22]
Todd McShay
No, next week's gonna be fun.
- [92:24]
Steve
Yeah.
- [92:25]
Todd McShay
Because we got that game. We get. Hey, by the way, we get Indiana, Oregon next week.
- [92:31]
Steve
I know.
- [92:32]
Todd McShay
Like NFL scouts. I can't imagine how many NFL scouts are going to be at that game. In this. In this. It's. No, it's at Oregon. Right? It's at Oregon.
- [92:41]
Steve
Yeah. It's at Oregon.
- [92:42]
Todd McShay
Oh. So maybe not as many as. I was going to say in the. The center of the heart. Heart. Heart of America. So. But with Fernando Mendoza. I'm talking to some people, man.
- [93:00]
Steve
The this is how it starts. I know this is how it starts.
- [93:05]
Todd McShay
I don't know.
- [93:07]
Steve
Starts in October.
- [93:09]
Todd McShay
But I promise you this. I hope it's 2027. If it's 2026, then it's 2026. At your own risk. Dante Moore.
- [93:18]
Steve
Yeah.
- [93:20]
Todd McShay
I don't see how He's. He's not QB1.
- [93:24]
Steve
Yeah.
- [93:25]
Todd McShay
And, and then, and then you've got guys like Nuss Meyer. What is, Is it the, Is it the ab? Is it what? Is something wrong? You get Club Nick dropping Lenore Sellers. Like when Next week. Sell it's who's. Who's South Carolina got next week? Let's go to week seven. They got a good game. Another quarterback matchup. Oh, lsu. Lsu, nice. So it's Nuss Meyer versus Sellers. That's gonna, that's like for scouts. Fascinating. College football fans, like still fascinating. You want to see Sellers versus that LSU defense and you want to see if not like what's going on with Nuss Meyer and that offense and, and you want to see can LSU get back on track?
- [94:11]
Steve
We got a week next week. I know Ohio State and Ohio State, Illinois and Alabama, Missouri are both the, are both the early slots.
- [94:18]
Todd McShay
But I'm not done with today. I'm not done with today. I'm not done with today. We might be going till 4 in the morning.
- [94:26]
Steve
I'm a little concerned, but let's do it.
- [94:28]
Todd McShay
I know, but let's start, let's start going rapid pace. I couldn't. I like, I don't want to get off of games without talking about. And I know I mentioned. And Jeff Lewis, my brother in law who by the way is like kind of one of the only things you can ask for is when, when someone marries into the family and they're actually a force multiplier and they're not some negative drave. Jeff's the best man.
- [94:49]
Steve
Not to be weird about it, I was two things. One, you know Jeff, I was legitimately bummed he wasn't in Chicago because I thought he was coming.
- [94:56]
Todd McShay
Right.
- [94:57]
Steve
Two, I have never been. He was, he was fine with it. We were literally having dinner in Manhattan Beach. Is that the name of it? What is it?
- [95:07]
Todd McShay
Yeah, man.
- [95:09]
Steve
Having dinner in Manhattan Beach. His flight left in a half an hour.
- [95:12]
Todd McShay
Oh my God, 40 minutes.
- [95:14]
Steve
And he walked out of the restaurant, got on the flight, just flew home. Cool with the cucumber. No problem. I was like, dude.
- [95:20]
Todd McShay
And meanwhile I feel, I, I feel like a, a traitor because my sister's sitting at home with the two girls and I'm Kind of like, come on, Jeff, just hang around, you know, Like, I'm like. I'm like Albie. Albie Schweitzer out in Manhattan Beach. We're having too much fun. But he made it home. He's a responsible father.
- [95:37]
Steve
Yeah.
- [95:38]
Todd McShay
And husband. But they're at the game today, right? They're at the Cincinnati game. And while I love them dearly and I love everyone in my family, it's not why I'm really intrigued by this game. First of all, I want to give. I want to give flowers. Okay. To Mensch, because this is. This was mentioned as pick of the week. Mine was Bama, right? No, it was.
- [95:59]
Steve
You took Bama.
- [95:59]
Todd McShay
Yeah, Bama. So two for two. What's up, fanduel? Coming after you. But. But this. This game. There's two things with this game. First of all, the NFL prospects that I think people are sleeping on in Cincinnati. But second of all, and more importantly, this game, like, it was really cool to watch because I know the history of this place in Nippert Stadium.
- [96:24]
Steve
Okay.
- [96:24]
Todd McShay
Okay. And with that in mind. All right. Deal with it. Get excited about it. Because we, like, we keep the lights on. And part of the wonderful reason we keep the lights on here and we are fueled and we are growing is that our new friends and sponsorship and partners are Home Depot. And, like, we're doing this thing every single week, and I love it. And they're. They're a major sponsor for our show now, and we couldn't appreciate them anymore. So it's time to get into a special segment of the show called the Home Field Advantage, brought to you by our friends at the Home Depot. The place to go build your dream game day. Set up on your own, on your own home field, whether it's tailgate in the backyard, your living room, wherever it is. And I've riffed about my home, which, by the way, is 73 years old.
- [97:14]
Steve
Right.
- [97:15]
Todd McShay
The guts of it are the first floor, and they built up and out and all that stuff. And I come in and I've got some stuff to do. I told you. I built the outdoor shower and the pea gravel we're rolling in, and we get the patio that we're working on that people think I'm drinking sixers on, but I'm actually not. We got the grill outside. I've got a Traeger grill. Like, oh. And. And how am I doing all this stuff? Because I'm like a Renaissance man. I never, like, I lived in the city. I had people, you know, like the homeowners Association. So I didn't get into all this stuff. But now I'm like, now it's not an apartment, now it's a home. Now it's like a family home. And now I got to dive in, right? But I get the 73 year old home and there's some stuff that you got to work on. And so now all of a sudden I live in a coastal town. It's 23 minutes before you get on the highway. Anyway, so I need help and I get the Home Depot and they're bringing stuff. Told you. The heater they brought last time, they brought all the stuff to help build that outside. So I understand what it's like to, to renovate, but also to like to take care of something old. So now you go to the Bearcats in Cincinnati, Ohio, where half my family lives. And so I kind of know more of the backdrop in that stadium than I should. And. And then Tucker and I are doing some research. Tucker's a great research assistant. His tutor. His tutor's Peyton, who. Who tutored all those UCL UCLA athletes. And now she's tutoring him and he's learning. And so we're growing together, right? And so now I'm talking about Nippert Stadium and kind of my backstory stories and knowing the history of it and he's adding some stuff. And now all of a sudden I've realized this stadium is the third oldest NCAA FBS stadium out there. Okay? James Gamble Nippert would be so damn proud.
- [98:52]
Steve
I had no idea.
- [98:53]
Todd McShay
I know Nippert Stadium 1915. So. But like my family and the people in that area really proud of this place. And I was because. And the reason I knew is because 2015, I was there for a game and. And I forget the match, but it was Cincinnati, it was a big game actually, and Tuberville was the head coach and I'm there and they're all proud about it and $85 million renovation and they take this beautiful place. It's kind of like a Fenway park to them, right? And they're making the old and restoring it. It's a restoration project and they're building it up. And so then this year they do some more updates. The, the ribbon boards and the concessions. All of that said, like, this is kind of a place that people in that area love and they're proud of how they rebuilt it and it fits in perfectly with the Home Depot and so what does that matter to today? Todd, would you shut up about all this renovation stuff? No, I won't because when you see a place like this that's been renovated and restored and all of a sudden you see big win you got. You get 14 in the country. Iowa State coming in. Cincinnati is kind of overlooked. Luke Fickle left him. Tuberville left him before that. Like, oh, they all kept. They come and they go and. And now you've got this 14th team in the country and. And the Bearcats got one loss and see, people are like, are they any good? And it all kind of comes full circle and they have the 14th team in the country and they whack them. They came out, I think it was like 30 something, nothing off the jump. Now granted, they had to battle for four quarters and kind of hang in there at the end, but to me, this was like a home field, like everything that's amazing about it, right?
- [100:23]
Steve
Yeah.
- [100:23]
Todd McShay
So what? So let me transition back those stadiums. A stadium like this definitely gives the, like the Bearcats an advantage someplace that they're proud of and they put a lot of money into making it. The old but the new, right. Yeah, they give. They give their team a serious edge. And you can create your home field advantage just like you had with the Bearcats Day. Whether you're tailgating at the stadium or watching from your backyard or your living room, the Home Depot has everything that you need. Game day setup that brings the energy from the grills to the smokers, from the top brands like Traeger and Next Girl and Weber, to fire pits to and. And smart, smart lighting, speakers, outdoor TVs, everything that just make it special. Right? This is the part that's critical. Fast free Delivery, man. Over 2 million online items delivered free to your door, subject to availability. See homedepot.com for details. The Home Depot how doers get more done right now? Bearcats, it wasn't just about environment. It was huge in it. I think this team is being slept on, man. Yes, I look at, I look at our scouting and our scouting ranks and I look at some of the preseason Nash like Nashville and blow stuff and I, and I start to put things together and I'm watching this guy, Brandon Sorsby, who you kind of like too. We talked about him a little bit on the phone today. Today. Fourth year junior, second year at Cincy at quarterback complet coming into today. I haven't added the numbers up. Excuse me. 70%, 10 touchdowns, one interception. Throwing the ball around, making some plays, moving around. Joe Royer's been nicked up, but he's a talent. He's the most high. He's the highest graded of all these guys, if you ask. Have you pulled NFL teams?
- [102:10]
Steve
The tight end? Yep.
- [102:12]
Todd McShay
Six, four and a half, 252 pounds. Rogers, four seven or sub. Okay, then you got Ty Washington out there, who's not even their number one back, but he's bulldozing guys and we showed that clip. Dante Corleone, who's Tucker's favorite name in all, the Godfather, all of college football. Absolute load. Did you see some of those short yardage things? Corleone in there?
- [102:34]
Steve
Oh, I, I really like him. I thought he had a chance. I think he got hurt last year. He would, he might have come out and then.
- [102:40]
Todd McShay
Yeah, and then Jake Galde, 6, 4, 2, 3 7, runs a 46 linebacker edge, kind of perfect, versatile, hybrid frame, fast, athletic. And he's playing up to the level this year. I'm telling he's gonna rise too. So we're talking about some guys for Cincinnati. It was fun to watch today.
- [103:01]
Steve
Yeah, I mean, they made it interesting in the second half, but when it mattered most, through that 82 yard touchdown pass that was right on the money. He was not as. He's not quite as sharp today, 13 out of 25, but he really has been. But he had two, two touchdowns, no interceptions, he ran for 64 yards. He has been on a tear really since the second half of the Nebraska game. If you go back and watch that game, he really put the fear of God, Nebraska in that second half. He's, he's an interesting player, man, because you look at the mobility, you look at the arm strength, you look at the kind of year he's having, that Cincinnati team's pretty good. I felt good about it going in. I felt great about it going into halftime. And then I got real nervous in the second half because, listen, Rocco Beck, say what you want, man. Tough dude he had there. There was a targeting call where the Cincinnati player got ejected and Rocco Becket is in the tent. I was like, he's got to be done for the day. Comes back out, plays the rest of the game. I mean, that Iowa State team is tough. They're well coached and you know, they made some mistakes today which were not like them, but they're tough, they're well coached and Beck, you know, finds a way to keep his, his team in it.
- [104:14]
Todd McShay
I just love how no one listens. No one's watching or listening at this point and that's totally fine too. But they're having a full on fight about Nussmeier versus C.J. carr, Joseph Rawling is in his mind. I think it's hysterical. I guess when I start doing an ad read, people just like, all right, we don't. We don't need Todd Steve. We're gonna.
- [104:32]
Steve
We're gonna create ad read. Great ad read.
- [104:36]
Todd McShay
Thanks, man. I feel good about. Yep.
- [104:38]
Steve
Real progress. The Joseph Rawlings into it. He gets it. Beck is awesome.
- [104:42]
Todd McShay
No, he does. He does.
- [104:47]
Steve
Always trade back.
- [104:48]
Todd McShay
How? I had Cole. I had Cole Marie confused. She was. Is this all one big ad read? Are we doing what? All right. I want to get to some.
- [104:56]
Steve
She's awesome, by the way. She's always listening, always reaching out. Coleman get.
- [105:00]
Todd McShay
No, I know. She's awesome.
- [105:02]
Steve
Yeah.
- [105:02]
Todd McShay
I didn't know it was a female.
- [105:04]
Steve
Oh, really?
- [105:05]
Todd McShay
Marissa told me it's a female because I was like, yeah, we were going through who are a consistent.
- [105:09]
Steve
It's Haas.
- [105:10]
Todd McShay
It's. It.
- [105:12]
Steve
It's always trade back home.
- [105:13]
Todd McShay
Always trade back. No Blink. I was looking up the number. Blink. 1, 2, 6 8, 9. Blink. Can you change your name or give us, like, your.
- [105:19]
Steve
Yeah.
- [105:19]
Todd McShay
So I don't have to call you blink. But. But I appreciate you being here all the time. Joseph Rawlings here, like. But then Cole Marie. We were talking about Cole Marie. He's like, you know, Cole's. Cole's a woman. She's, like, the smartest person on the chat by far. And she, like, dug a little bit. Oh, she knows, like, all sports. She's like. She's. She's amazing. All right. So anyway, I want to go through some really quick hitters. Jump me if you need to. Don't need to get into any analysis on this, but things just quickly jumped out. I told you about Mississippi State, Texas A and M, the Aggies. Like, I. I'm he. Like, I get that. Remember, you talked about, like, one foot on, but not both. I can't quite put that second foot on in terms of being all in. And it's because of Marcel. Here's the thing. It's because of the penalties. 125th in penalties in the country. And today again, problem. They let Mississippi State hang around. They had a touch, including a kickoff return for a kick return for touchdown. Forget it was a punch or kick that was brought back due to a penalty. Marcel Reed is so athletic and makes so many special plays, and he delivers a lot in, like, clutch situations and all that stuff. I've watched enough now to know this guy, this young man, there's a hab. There's a habit that has to be broken, and that is like this. You know how I told you about the Brian Kelly, Jaden, Dan. Just let it rip. Like, rip it.
- [106:44]
Steve
Just rip it.
- [106:45]
Todd McShay
I feel like there's some times where he's not with like, totally trust my eyes. Just rip it. And it's like, should I. If he can get rid of that indecisive before he decides to go. It's that one quick. If you really watch him, it's this one. Like. And then by doing that sometimes then he gets himself in real trouble because it's like I put my hand in the cookie jar. I really. I think I want that cook. Yeah, I'm gonna go do it. And then. And all of a sudden it closes on him. So now there's a defend. And now his feet are here. And then he. And that in. In that, like, quarter count, he will make a bad decision and throw from a horrible base and body position or with a guy underneath him or the defenders had a quarter count to react. That is a trend that is. Has not gone away. And that is his next step in development. And until he does that, I think A and M is a damn good football team and better than a year ago. But I don't know that we will be talking about him this year unless he rectifies that. And they find a way as a coaching staff to. To like that. Go trust it. Go. Or don't, but don't live in this little purgatory that you've been living in.
- [108:00]
Steve
Right. I hear you.
- [108:02]
Todd McShay
I can't put them at Ohio State. Oregon. No. Miami. You know, I just.
- [108:07]
Steve
But, yeah, no, but there's.
- [108:08]
Todd McShay
They're 5, 0 now, Mitch.
- [108:10]
Steve
They might. They might be the most dangerous team in America.
- [108:13]
Todd McShay
They beat Notre Dame. We're gonna. We're about to do the AP top 12. And, like, you're gonna probably make an argument that belong in the top 12. So they have a team that might be.
- [108:21]
Steve
Oh, they're in the top 12. Right.
- [108:23]
Todd McShay
So we'll get to that in a minute. Another thing I wanted to touch on Ohio State over Minnesota. I watched very little of that game and. And the outcome of it served the. You know, backed me up for why I didn't. But I did check in a couple times, and then I did see a couple. I've been waiting for Carnell Tate to have this game, and I'm excited about it. I'm excited to watch. Go back and watch the tape and how he did it. But he, like, two and a half quarters in, he had eight catches, 179 yards and a touchdown. Okay, that's awesome. To see. And. And Jeremy. Jeremiah Smith, he didn't have a huge night, but he had another like six or seven catches. So this is an offense that has been protecting the quarterback, been conservative. I know it's Minnesota and all the things, but it was good to see them kind of let it rip a little bit. Go ahead, sir.
- [109:12]
Steve
Two things. Bo Jackson got the most carries tonight. It looks like it's trending where he'll be the. It'll be the primary back, as you called. And then Max Claire, the tight end who I really liked coming into the season, had five or 63. So it looks like he's starting to.
- [109:25]
Todd McShay
Carve out a role which also just.
- [109:28]
Steve
Keeps making steps, man. I mean, even as they're like, there's also with the story within. The story is, oh, we're also developing this part of our game and finding a role for this player that we brought in. Ryan Day is a damn good coach. I mean, he's a damn good coach.
- [109:45]
Todd McShay
Michigan is not on the level of Ohio State. No, I just. It's just fun to say because I can already hear the whole state of Ann Arbor just losing its mind, but Michigan is not in the talent level of Ohio State. But Michigan, similar to Ohio State, I'm also seeing some progression in areas that I've needed to see progression today. That Wisconsin defense is pretty good. It hasn't been all the time. They had had a lot of injuries, all that stuff, both sides. But I saw a couple things that were really promising today and it wasn't even. It wasn't even Underwood. It, you know, still the ups, the downs, all that stuff. But he was. He was good today. But. But there are two guys, three guys. First of all, we just know what one of them is. Justice Haynes keeps doing it, and I mentioned it before, five games. Five. Five straight games. 100 plus yards in every single game, so consistently. And there's been big runs. But he's also like. He's just been a huge get for them this year and I don't see that changing his role. The two guys that really got me excited today, they're wide receivers. Andrew Marshall, you know, when we say you see a few plays. Oh, that. That guy's different. He's not the biggest, but he's just. He's. He's a playmaker. He had four catches for 80 yards. I'm starting to see, oh, by the way, true freshman. He's emerging. And this Donovan McCauley. Let me look. Let me see if there's any grade on him.
- [111:26]
Steve
He had his moments today too, huh? He had one driver at two catches for 62 yards and a touchdown.
- [111:31]
Todd McShay
He has a. Coming into the year. I can confirm this by one of the pre. C. One of the. The services that NFL teams use. I'll confirm this non draftable grade. Okay, interesting. But I also want to. I want to point back to where are my notes I didn't copy and past. Let me look this up. He is a 6 foot 4 wide receiver. Here it is. Leads a team in receptions and receiving yards coming into the game. He was four years at Indiana before transferring 6 foot 4 target today I saw. Okay, I. Apparently we're running out of connection. Something's going on. But. But anyway, so I'm just saying as a guy to watch in a wide receiver class that's had a lot of ups and downs and all that kind of stuff, I think that that Macaulay's someone to.
- [112:29]
Steve
To watch, keep an eye on.
- [112:31]
Todd McShay
Yep. I'm just staring at myself frozen in the screen. So we've got the AP top 12. Hopefully we can run this back. I just want to say this. Let's rip through it in 30 seconds and hopefully Tucker can use it for the actual show. Go. And. And I apologize if anyone can hear me that this is not working out.
- [112:57]
Steve
Well.
- [112:57]
Todd McShay
Here it is. I mentioned before, Texas, Penn State, Clemson were 1, 2 and 4 coming in the year. They're 8 and 7. So there's been a major shake up obviously from the start of the year. I'm pleased this week, Mensch, because the two teams I've been campaigning, campaigning the last few weeks, Penn State, last week, Iowa State consistently took them. They took themselves out of the conversation. Okay.
- [113:22]
Steve
Yep.
- [113:23]
Todd McShay
But let's face it, like this AP top 12, it's kind of like a triage site.
- [113:28]
Steve
Yeah.
- [113:30]
Todd McShay
You know, like.
- [113:31]
Steve
Yeah.
- [113:32]
Todd McShay
It's every week it's like major players taking hits. Right. This week it's Penn State, totally unexpected. UCLA and quite honestly, Texas. Like, you look at Florida now and you're like, yeah, well, you could see that maybe they're talented and all that, but like they hadn't shown anything. So we got two out definitively and Iowa State was kind of lurking around. They had been dropped to 13 in the AP, which I was pleased about. But they're like, they're. They're now out of the conversation. We don't have to deal with them. So teams that were in like the top 13 to 16 coming in that are completely out of the conversation. Texas, Penn State, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, at least for now, in the Foreseeable future. Okay, Ohio State's an obvious. This is. These are my rankings 1 through 10. And then I'm going to give you the other teams. I'm going to give you my 1 through 10. You tell me if you have any problems and then I'm going to give you. I've got five other teams that I would consider for the 11th and 12th spots and I'll. And I'll. I want to get your take on it. 1, Ohio State, 2. Oregon. 3. Miami.
- [114:41]
Steve
4.
- [114:41]
Todd McShay
Ole Miss. Non negotiable. Locked in stone heading into next week. 5 through 10 is like this next bracket for me. It's Oklahoma, it's A M, it's Alabama, it's Indiana, it's Texas Tech and it's Georgia. So Oklahoma at 5 A&M at 6, Bama at 7, Indiana at 8, Texas Tech at 9 and Georgia at 10. Okay, I'm gonna now give you. Do you have any major problems with 5 through 10?
- [115:19]
Steve
No major problems. I don't know at this point how you don't have Miami. One, Ohio State, two. Oregon, three. I think Ohio State might be the best team in the country. I, I. No disrespect to Ohio State. Miami's resume is good enough to put them one now.
- [115:35]
Todd McShay
Okay, I could live with that, but I'm not. I'm not. It's my poll and I'm not doing it.
- [115:42]
Steve
That's fine. Yeah. I would expect nothing less from you, Ohio.
- [115:47]
Todd McShay
Ohio State's the best team in the, in the country.
- [115:52]
Steve
In the land.
- [115:55]
Todd McShay
Now, this is where I want to talk to you. And I, and I actually will take. If you, if you just kind of stick with the AP poll and they're like, well, they didn't play this week and so how can we move anyone up? And now LSU. LSU would be 11 in Tennessee would be 12. And quite frankly, I, I like, I, I'm not fighting it totally. But I could also sit here and make an argument. Michigan should be at 11 or Notre Dame should be at 11 and the other one at 12. And there will be people out there who scream about Missouri and scream.
- [116:32]
Steve
That'll get sorted out. That'll get sorted out.
- [116:34]
Todd McShay
But exactly. So I'm really down to four teams. Michigan, Notre Dame, LSU and Tennessee. Do you have any. And I know Notre Dame is resume says Tennessee.
- [116:50]
Steve
Yep. I think it's LSU in Tennessee right now, but I hear you. Michigan, Michigan, Michigan and Notre Dame are coming.
- [116:59]
Todd McShay
They're coming.
- [117:00]
Steve
Yeah.
- [117:01]
Todd McShay
All right. This is a fun show and I apologize to anyone who was watching it live with us. There were some, some moments of glitching and all that stuff, but life goes on. But we appreciate you being here and hopefully if you want to go back and watch the the James Franklin stuff, go back and watch it. I'm sure Tucker will have it all sorted out for the show that's going to go go live in about five minutes from now and we'll be running in perpetuity and I'm sure I'll hear about that. But it won't be as crazy as it was with Fine Bomb last week. Okay, Mensch back Monday morning. You got anything left last to say to anyone else? Anyone you want to no Excited to.
- [117:42]
Steve
Get into the Always Sunday. It's always eye opening because it's like you think you see things and then you go back and you watch a tape and you get a better feel. Sometimes you're right and sometimes you you realize it was something else.
- [117:52]
Todd McShay
And there's no one, there's no one on this chat who's smarter than Caden Arkador who says Todd asked for Mensch's take just to say no thanks. 5 stars, Mitch 5 stars.
- [118:06]
Steve
Awesome.
- [118:07]
Todd McShay
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